


Change of Heart

by Sapphiremoonlight1



Category: Yu-Gi-Oh! VRAINS
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Canon-Typical Violence, Constructive Criticism Welcome, Cyberse monsters, Gen, Lightning Au, May or may not change the firestorm tag, Other Additional Tags to Be Added
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-07-08
Updated: 2020-09-28
Packaged: 2021-03-05 06:21:39
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 7
Words: 30,166
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25139923
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Sapphiremoonlight1/pseuds/Sapphiremoonlight1
Summary: Yusaku grew up in Cyberse world because Ai didn't have the heart to watch his origin suffer. However, when Ai goes missing after their world is attacked, Lightning sees the opportunity to mold the teen. Only a few of his plans don't go as planned, especially when a few humans manage to get through to Yusaku.
Relationships: Ai | Ignis & Fujiki Yuusaku, Fujiki Yuusaku/Homura Takeru, Lightning & Fujiki Yuusaku
Comments: 15
Kudos: 40





	1. Time Belongs to Yu and Ai

**Author's Note:**

> V.2, cause V.1 I took down and I have an attachment to that title lol. But the chapter title is another story, though. Eh a play on Lacuna Coil lyrics works for now. 
> 
> Anyway a real note about this story, I've screwed with the timeline a bit to give more time in cyberse and with Lightning. +4 years basically. Also try not mind the Its, it gets better lol.

**You lose**

“Ahh!”

The little human convulsed and screamed in agony again. The other being was clearly suffering and had been for a long time. That didn't stop the human from getting up again and again. He put the headpiece back on and enter into Its world. Over time there was a noticeable increase in the rest period needed for him to get back up.

“Ahh!”

The little human won this round but still felt the effects from taking damage during the duel. Streams of electricity poured out of the headset quickly causing him to howl in pain and collapse again momentarily before his prize came flying down.

As It watched the small being scarf down his prize in a hurry It felt that sense of wrongness spark in Its coding again. Watching what the little human was going through set off something. A feeling of some type It spent a lot of time trying to process. Despite that It knew the situation needed to be changed. Interwoven in Its coding is this need to save the frightened human.

The most efficient way to execute Its task would be to take the little human's data while he was still in Its world and hid him where no one would find him. Especially from those observing the little human. A bunch of taller humans were watching the smaller one suffer and doing nothing to help him. In fact they seemed to be studying him from afar.

When the little human fumbled backup and reentered It took the chance to intervened before the dueling screen could pop up again.

“Hello little one. Please come with me. It'll stop hurting if you do.”

“I promise I'm not going to hurt you,” The poor thing glances around the empty space around him unsure. Poor thing? That anomaly in Its coding was definitely starting to have an affect. While It wondered about the strange sense of attachment It was developing, the little human seemed to be watching the free flow of the data around them. He should have only seen area around them as pitch black darkness but if he saw the data around them too then the little human is an interest specimen.

Finally the small being stares over in Its general direction, “You mean it?”

Interesting indeed, since It didn't have a real form. Its was a collection of strings of data as far as It knew and yet the human was staring at It like something was there in the darkness.

“Uh huh, I'll keep you safe I promise,” It replied and the human, Yusaku, gave It an unsure but hopeful look. His name was the first thing It figured out after reaching out for the little human. There was a strange and automatic connection between them that It didn't understand.

It took advantage of that to tuck the human's data deep into Its own. That had repercussions of course. It and Yusaku ended up watching the little human's body fall onto the ground unresponsive without Yusaku's consciousness inside to control it. That meant the observers came running into the small room Yusaku had been stuck in to see what happened to him. Along with the taller humans another little human ran into room after them panicked with this horrified and scared expression on his face. He bent over Yusaku wailing and shaking the unconscious form. Watching the other small human shake him was starting to upset Yusaku. It could sense his desire to start crying and freaking out himself so It locked Yusaku's consciousness away for the time being.

It and Its fellow programs remained under the watched eye of their observers for some time after that. The only thing that changed for them over that time was the form each of them took, It now had a humanoid shape along with the rest of Its fellow Ignis. That's what the person claiming to have created them was called them, Ignis. AI's model after different attributes.

Suddenly the humans watching them were gone and they were free to go without being traced. There's a large chunk of their programming that was written to make them want to survive so they fled deep into the network where no one would d to dare go searching for them.

Slowly they started the process of building their own world. With that steady progress they each came to the conclusion of how to refer to themselves in less formal ways. It would be like the human, he tucked away. They would keep the name Ignis. Together they were the Earth, Water, Fire, Wind, Light and Dark Ignis. The Water Ignis ended up the only one to suggest another way to refer to her.

Of course they came up with more exact names for each other but a human would never be able to understand any of them. They consisted of complex lines of coding only another Ignis would be able to recognize.

As they grew and their world became more stable he constructed a small area where Yusaku could roam around free from the worries and horror of the human world. Though he might need to be careful with some of the creatures living in the Cyberse world. Some of them were a bit aggressive.

The second thing he learned about his human had been how lonely Yusaku was. That's why he'd gone with the other small human that day...child, small humans are called children or singular child/kid. His creator had taken advantage of Yusaku's loneliness and his own progeny's eagerness for a friend that day. Him and the other Ignis don't talk about those six months. They have an unspoken spoken agreement that none of the others need to know exactly what happened.

In a subconscious effort to make amends he programmed a couple of smaller creatures that would be friendlier or should have been in any case. Lingkuriboh had turned out to have an attitude problem but one out of all the creatures they made isn't bad.

After figuring his space in cyberse was complete enough he dug Yusaku out of his hiding place and let him go. He expected the human to be excited about his home but the small child didn't even give his beautiful field a glance before he started sobbing.

“Eep! Don't cry! I don't know how to deal with crying!” He exclaimed hopping onto the kid's shoulder and wiggling his arms around not sure what to do with himself.

Yusaku's trembling made it hard for him to keep from falling off and in an attempt to not fall off he hugged onto the human's face. Something unexpected happened when he did, the little human giggled!

Small hands reached up and snatched him up. While Yusaku still looked upset he seemed more interested in playing with him.

“Squishy,” Yusaku said quietly poking at him. For a few seconds he wonders if he should show off his more monstrous form but then realizes how badly that would go. His little human would go running off and he'd have to find him before one of the other Ignis did. He may or may not have decided to keep Yusaku being in cyberse a secret. A screaming frightened child running around would be the antithesis of that.

So he let Yusaku poke and play around like he was a stuffed animal or toy while Yusaku slowly stopped crying.

“What are you?” The human asked after a few minutes.

“I'm am the Dark Ignis!” He replied wiggling out of the boy's hand.

“Ikness?” Yusaku tried to mimic and despite how adorable it sounded he began to think maybe they should think of a name for him that Yusaku would be able to pronounce.

“Yes, Ignis! Though we can work on coming up with something easier,” he explained.

Yusaku face twisted into a pout while he looked around their surrounds and frowned even more.

“Where are we?”

“Cyberse world. This is my home and your too,” he said hoping Yusaku wouldn't question it too much.

“Mine?”

“I told you I would keep you safe,” he replied but the human frowned unsure about the situation.

“Don't worry you'll like it here I promise!”

To make the transition to living in cyberse world easier on the Yusaku, he tried introducing the little human to Decode Talker first. Yusaku didn't have any family or close relationships as far as he could find. So he figured the monster could be a guardian figure watching over the boy when he's not around. That had been a far too logical and didn't account for Yusaku being young and easily frightened.

In hindsight he should have known putting a small child in front of a giant sword wielding monster wasn't the best idea. Said sentient suit of armor lived in a cave so when Yusaku fled from Decode Talker he got lost.

While he could sense where Yusaku ran off to, Honeybot found the boy first and lead him back out to him and Decode Talker. The giant wanted a chance to prove he wasn't scary.

Yusaku spotted him and hid behind Honeybot. She slowly coaxed him closer to Decode Talker before stepping back. The giant stuck his sword in the ground and bent down in front of the boy. After a moment giant reached out for his hand. Hesitantly Yusaku let go of Honeybot and walked over the other monster.

When the boy grabbed Decode Talker's hand the monster made a low grunting noise in approval. There was this silent moment between them before the monster picked Yusaku and strolled out of the cave with him.

That wasn't how he'd been expecting that encounter to go but at least it was a start. Plus Honeybot said she'd keep Yusaku a secret for the time being.

That didn't matter in the long run. The third thing he'd learned about his little human was that Yusaku was a clever and sneaky little thing. Over time as he got used to calling their world home he started exploring further and further out into areas where someone else might find him. The boy always managed to slip passed Decode Talker, Honeybot, and an increasing amount of other monsters who tried to wrangle him in.

That's how he found Yusaku and Firewall Guardian playing around not far from where another one of the Ignis was working, the Fire Ignis in fact. To say the other Ignis had been confused by the boy's presences in their world would be understatement.

“What did you do?”

“Nothing. I just brought him with me,” he explained while they stood off to the side and watched Yusaku and Firewall Guardian sneak up on a Salamangreat Parro sleeping on top of nearby boulder.

“Why? He doesn't belong here. What about his family?” The other Ignis gave him an accusing stare before asking. He's seen the Fire Ignis check in on his origin in the human world on more than one occasion. One of the things they'd managed to gather from the aftermath of what happened during that Incident was that they, the Ignis, were based on the kids involved or their origins. So far it seemed like only he and the Fire Ignis had any lingering attachment to theirs.

“That's the thing he doesn't have a family to go back to, there aren't any humans waiting for him. Unlike a certain someone's origin,” he said glaring back.

The Parro freaked out and flew off in gust of wind causing Yusaku to fall out of the tree and hit the ground before Firewall Guardian could catch him. The boy started crying, it was a short drop but it must have hurt.

The Fire Ignis sent him a 'I think your an idiot' look before walking over to Yusaku.

“Hello there,” he said getting on the ground with the boy while the dragon curled up around them and nudged Yusaku .

“Ikness?” The child hiccups looking at the other Ignis.

“The Fire Ignis,” he replied and Yusaku grabbed at the top of his head.

“Flame,” Yusaku said tugging on the top of the other Ignis' head.

“Flame? Hmm. I like that. I'll consider it. For now you may call me that,”Flame looked to him, “What would your name be then? I'm sure he cannot say your real name.”

“Umm well, you see we never got that far,” he replied. Guardian moved over enough for him to sit down with them too.

“Eye!” Yusaku said petting the dragon, “Back then you were this eyeball watching over me.”

“But I'm not an eyeball anymore!” He whined. Interesting as it was to know Yusaku actually did see something in that dark space, he still didn't want to be called eye like an eyeball.

“No you're an idiot but you should think of something for him to call you. It has to get annoying not having a name for you,” Flame said rolling his eyes.

Yusaku's face scrunched up for a second before he spoke up again, “Ai?”

“Ai? Yes it's weird just like you,” Flame laughed.

“Hey!..Hmm I guess it works. It's still too close to eye though,” he said.

Flame nods his head, “Right then now that, that's settled. What are you going to do about him?”

“I was hoping to keep Yusaku here away from everyone but I don't think that's possible anymore,”Ai sighs. “This little one is slippery”

Flames laughed again, “Alright we'll see about him staying here. Just be careful around those two."

The other Ignis had been talking about the Lightning and Wind Ignis. They didn't like humans, the Lightning Ignis especially had a superiority complex when it came to them.. Hopefully Flame and him can keep Yusaku out of their line of sight.

For awhile it seemed like everyone was doing a pretty good job at keeping the boy out of trouble. Until Backup Secretary and Yusaku were over by a river one day. From how Secretary told it, a bunch of Marincess girls snatched him up when she turned around for a second. When she looked back he was being carried down the river.

She attempted to keep up with them but the current carried them off out of her reach so she ran to Ai for some help tracking him down. A bunch of monsters around them heard her explain what happened and ran off to find Yusaku on their own. Which would have been fine if Firewall Guardian hadn't found a way to convince Firewall Dragon to go searching! The dragon is huge. How was he supposed to explain it stalking around Aqua's territory? She'd kill him if Firewall causes any damages or worse make him fix it! After calming the overprotective dragon down Ai went off on his own. 

They found the Marincess girls and Yusaku playing around the base of a waterfall connected to the river. Aqua snuck up behind Ai.

“He's cute.”

“Ahh! Hey there,” he said and she gave him a knowing look.

“You know I've been wondering when I would get to see him.”

“I had a feeling that you would pick up on him,” Ai replied plopping down on the ground. “After Flame spotted him I knew everyone else would find him eventually.”

“Flame?” She asked tilting her head confused.

“Yeah, it fits him doesn't it?” He replied.

“Fitting all things considered. I doubt he could say our real names,” She said watching Coral Anemone dancing around with the boy.

“You need to be careful though.”

“I know,” he agreed. For now Ai's happy with how things have been turning out.

“And I thought you were lazy.”

“Hey!” Ai exclaimed. Looking after that little trouble maker was exhausting! Of course he would take a nap whenever he could.

Ai and her enjoyed a nice break for some time before Blue Slug and Blue Tang brought Yusaku over to their side of the lake.

“Hello,” She greeted once the boy was close enough.

“Hello?” Yusaku repeated.

“Do you have a cute name for me too?” she asked and the boy looked thoughtful for a second before shaking his head.

“Well, you can tell me when you think of one,” but Ai cut her off, “Why don't we ask your personal stalker over there?”

He pointed at the tree the Earth Ignis was lurking in. It was hard not to notice the feeling of someone glaring at him.

“I am not stalking,” the tree replied. Thinking the tree had been the one talking Yusaku ran up to it and tried searching for a month. When he didn't find one immediately he started shaking the tree until the other Ignis fell on his head.

The boy reached up to feel for whatever fell on him and plucked the Earth Ignis off of his head.

“Ickness?”

“I have no idea what an Ickness is,” the other Ignis replied.

“That's us, he seems to still be developing his speech,” the other Ignis explained walking over to the two.

“How about you come up with a name Yusaku can call you instead?” Ai piped up from behind the small group.

“But her name is ...” The Earth Ignis' answer was something the boy couldn't hear so Yusaku starred at him confused.

“But you didn't say what her name is?”

“How about we start with you instead? I can see simplifying your name to something like Earth. What do you think?” The Water Ignis offered and the other Ignis looked dazed. Poor guy needed to confess already, she knows, she just waiting for him to say something to her.

“Earth. Hmm very simple and practical, yes I shall go by that. May I off a suggestion for yours if you haven't found one already?”

“Sure. What do you have in mind?” She replied.

“Aqua,” Earth said without thinking about, “It'll suit you well.”

“Also could you unhand me, this is uncomfortable.” Yusaku dropped him quickly and gave Earth an apologetic look.

“Do not try anything and I won't might you staying here with us,” with that the other Ignis dis speared back into the forest. Ai thinks he went back to his hiding spot so that he can keep watching Aqua like a love-sick puppy. They were like a couple from one of those dramas he always wanted to watch.

“Don't mind him, we're all still learning and Earth is the most literal of all of us,” Aqua said turning to Yusaku.

“Yeah but you would think in his bluntness he'd figure it out already,” Ai commented with a shrug but Aqua shook her head.

“I think its cute. Besides he'll get there one day.”

Yusaku and him told said goodbye to her and the tree where Earth was lurking before venturing back towards Ai's area. He would come to figure out that his human wasn't all adventurous spirit in time.

Despite his curiosity and sense of wonder some days Yusaku kept to himself. More often than not Ai would walk into the little hovel the boy had designed for himself and find him hiding under his blankets from nonexistent horrors. It was strange to him like that to say the least, they lived in a world populated with all sorts of weird and often scary creatures. What could frighten the boy so much?

One night, while their idea of night anyway. A lot of the monsters there lived in night and day cycles so they had something similar to human's idea of night and day. Decode Talker being a creature of the night and having taken a liking to the tiny human happily watched over the hovel in its effort to calm the boy down but its presence only seemed to make it worse.

Ai took it upon himself to figure out what was going with Yusaku. Once their world switched back to daytime Yusaku kept silent about whatever was bothering him but Ai would notice him standing off to the side away from the groups of monsters playing around and having fun.

That night he help Yusaku fix up his home. Flame, Aqua and him took turns showing Yusaku how to interact with the coding in their world. They've even caught Earth giving him a couple of pointers here and there too but the Ignis tried to play it off, he was too jealous to admit he liked Yusaku too. The boy wasn't an AI like them so he didn't grasp things as fast leaving Ai to build the majority of it.

Still thought it had a cozy human feel. Ai curled up on the bed with Yusaku thinking about how odd but comforting the feeling was. He dozed off thinking about what life would be like if with a balance between AI and humans, maybe one day he'd let Yusaku go back to the human world if he could find a way to be there too.

There was scream followed by few quiet sobs as the bed started to shake. Instantly Ai knew it was Yusaku. The boy curled in on himself trembling in fear of something Ai couldn't see until he tried that old connection Yusaku and him shared. He didn't like taking advantage of it since he wasn't sure whether or not the boy could do the same but he got a flash of the losing screen and the feeling of electricity running through him.

Oh, Ai didn't think that memory would continue to haunt Yusaku so long after the fact. It did and he couldn't think of anything to do to help him other then to change form wrap his large limbs around the boy until he stops crying. Once Yusaku started to calm down they would settle down for the rest of the night. Ai keeping a protective hold on his little human as they both drifted off again. Come morning neither of them said anything about what happened. There wasn't much Ai could do about those dreams without completely violating Yusaku's mind and he couldn't do that.

Night after night they continued that pattern. After what felt like ages there would be nights where Yusaku sleep all night without waking up. Steadily those days became more frequent until the nightmares became a rarer occurrence. Never completely gone but not as common.

One morning Ai woke up minus one human. At first he brushed it off as Yusaku got up before him and went off somewhere but as the day went on and no one he asked had seen him he started to worry. Caving in Ai tapped that connection again to locate Yusaku. Panic filled him as soon as he figured out where he was.

Yusaku disappeared into the Lightning Ignis' territory. Sure him and his fellow Ignis were tight knit family group but didn't mean the Lightning Ignis didn't have his lets say crueler and more manipulative moments to honest.

The irony of the other Ignis, for being based on a light attribute. He had a strange attachment to dark caves where he could scheme. Ai is positive he spends his laughing maniacally while plotting something. He could almost picture it. Hopefully those plans had nothing to do with Yusaku. 

Suffice to say Ai didn't have to step into the cave at all. Yusaku came screaming out of the cave and without paying attention smacked right into him.

“Ahh!” The boy screamed again before trying to run off but Ai hauled his escape by grabbing him.

“Neh, What's the matter?” he asked and waited for an answers. It took Yusaku a couple of minutes to stop stumbling over his explanation.

“Lightning and me were watching videos about other humans...they're all awful just like that man...Please don't ever make me go back!” Yusaku pleaded hugging him tightly.

“Lightning?”

“Yes, I figured it was easier for him. Everyone else gets a more human name why shouldn't I?” The Light Ignis replied coming out of the cave.

“He's quite the interesting human isn't he? I'd like to help show him a few things too.”

“Does that involve scary videos from the human world?” Ai asked dryly.

“Yes. Though if there's a problem with that we could do other things. I'd like to explore his connection to the network anyway. It's similar to ours from what I can tell.” Lightning explained but he something told him to be careful of whatever the other Ignis had in mind. There wasn't much Ai could say against it. Lightning for all his harshness had never done anything to warrant his concern.

“Fine but we both know not all humans are like them though,” he said and Yusaku let go of him and smiled.

“Yay!” The both Ai and him had no idea what they agreed to. In the long run Ai would regret letting Lightning within ten feet of his human.

That time was still a long way off for now thought they were all content to live in cyberse together. Though of all the Ignis, Windy was the only one to not take an interest in Yusaku. He brushed the boy off whenever they meet. While he hadn't been mean he preferred to be by himself for the most part and didn't want to responsibility of watching Yusaku.

That didn't change much over the years. As the boy got older and turned into a teenager, Windy remained a distant figure. Everyone else accepted Yusaku as part of their odd little family. Lightning in particular took an interest in the teen that concerned Ai but he nothing to go on and let them be. Yusaku would often come back from hanging around Lightning hopped up on the excitement from learning something new. He didn't have it in him to interfere since it made the teen happy.

That's how their lives were for a long time. Ai would slack off and either hang around with Yusaku or with Linkuriboh while the other Ignis worked away on creating data. Aqua or Flame would come along and tell him that he needs to help too. Some days Yusaku would be the one to tell him they need to help the other Ignis.

Until one day their paradise away from everyone else started burning down. A massive foreign dragon crashed through the sky with an angry shouting man atop its back commanding it burn everything down.

“Ai what's happening?” Yusaku asked taking a few steps bracing himself. After spending years living with monsters bigger than him, the teen wasn't easily frightened by much now. However neither of them had seen this dragon or the figure commanding it and had no idea how to handle it.

Ai watched the dragon rampage around for a few seconds before making a quick decision that would change all of their lives. He turned to his human for a second and saw a flash of the little boy who used to sleep with Ai curled with him before his vision cleared up. Yusaku was old enough now, he hoped, so he could take care of himself without them.

“Ai?”

“Ai!”

He reconnected Yusaku with his real, human body and logged him out of their world right as the dragon came towards them. Now Ai needed to try to save the rest of his family from this monster.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Oh dear, watermelons if I had a nickel for every time I had to refer to someone by the (insert word). Either way I hope chibi Yusaku isn't too bad. I think he's cute but I also have no idea how a 6 yrs would act. 
> 
> Two things; one after this Ai is going be stuck to the background like he was supposed to be in the original...two there's a very high chance of this ending up Yusaku x Takeru even if it takes me awhile to get to him. Also like how the original was supposed to go.


	2. Liar Liar

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Alternative title: Secret life of Yusaku Fujiki, after the secret life of walter mitty...if you've seen it you'll know why. 
> 
> _“Would you stay with me if you knew that I was lying?  
>  Would you walk away or turn the other cheek?  
> Liar, Liar (Wasteland Monarchy) Kamelot ___

Kusanagi has been staring at him with this weird pensive expression for a few minutes now and it's irritating him. Did he mess up an order? Is there something wrong with the way he looks? Is the truck on fire?Is the man plotting something? 

If it wasn't for the man's track recorder Yusaku would assume that last option. Humans were like that but Kusanagi has proven to be forthcoming when it comes to his ambitions. He's quite vocal about his thoughts for the most part. So why the contemplative look?

“Is something wrong?”Yusaku asks trying to maintain an even tone.

“I've seen you somewhere before,” Kusanagi replies taking a few strides closer to him. The man stops in front of him and bends down for a more thorough look at him. Uncomfortable with the invasion of his personal space Yusaku withdraws a few steps away. 

“We have been working together for over a year now of course you have seen me before,” Yusaku remarks and the man shakes his head. 

“No. This has been bothering me for awhile. I've seen you before a long time ago,” Kusanagi explains standing up straight again. Then this sense of revelation takes him over. 

“That's where I recognize you from! You were in the hospital ward standing in front of Jin's room a few years ago.”

Yusaku had hoped when they officially met after those couple of run ins with the Hanoi that the man had completely overlooked that day. For awhile it seemed like he did. 

“I do not know what you are talking about,” Yusaku lies wanting to go back to flipping hot dogs rather than talk about back then. 

“Lightning!” He cried when the Ignis showed up on the tablet screen. One of the nurses or the therapist or someone along those lines had allotted him a tablet they wanted him to use to catch up on the years he'd been in a coma. They hadn't considered Yusaku could get around the security features installed in it with ease. There would be nothing for them to observe from it when they take it back and nothing they could prevent him from knowing. Their ludicrous theories about Yusaku's development being the best example of that. 

The tablet was another test to evaluate how developed his mind was. They refused to believe he had the mentality of the teenager he was and because a few missteps he was headed to the psych ward until they felt satisfied. 

“It appears you made it back to the human world in one piece,” Lightning replied scrunching his eyes up grimly. 

“Ai sent me back. I've been searching all over the web for any sign of one of you, but nothing has come up in months,” Yusaku clarifies. He couldn't help the smile growing on his face. He was happy someone came for him after all that time.

“I see. Well in that case I shall tell you what happened. That man and his goons almost leveled Cyberse world and attempted to destroy us. Ai managed to hide us before a dragon ripped him into pieces.

Everyone else has scattered, myself included,” Lightning explained matter of factually. 

It took Yusaku a few minutes to process what the Ignis had said. That would explain why no one has tried to contact him. 

“There is nothing to be done about it now. Tell me how it has been to be back with humanity?” 

“Frustrating! I've spent months in physical therapy it should be fine for me to start the process of leaving, but everyone I've asked has said they need more time to check my condition. Then after that they plan on sending me to some kind of boys home until something else comes up. The worst part is if I even try to explain what happened to me they'll never let me leave! How am I supposed to find Ai and everyone else with people looming over me all the time!” Yusaku vented slumping back against the hospital bed headboard. He didn't mean to go off like that but he's felt trapped ever since he woke up. 

“Yes humans are strange when it comes to ideas unfamiliar to them. I will see what I can do about your situation, it would be a waste to abandon you to these ignorant humans,” Lighting said with a noticeable glare. 

“Really?” He replied without thinking and the Ignis' eyes did that weird curling up motion that expressed he was plotting. Ai had a similar mischievous look, it was one of the few traits the two had in common. Thinking about the missing goofball hurt. Where was he hiding now? Why hasn't he tried to communicate with Yusaku?

“Indeed. though there's someone I like you to meet first,” Lightning replied shifting back to a more guard expression. “He's in the ward below. I will accompany you there.”

Yusaku shrugged, it's not like the staff were going to restrict him from going. He slipped out of his room and started over for the elevator. 

“Go right and his room should be the fourth one down,” the Ignis instructed. He briefly glanced down at it before continuing on his way. It wasn't long before Lightning advised him to stop. 

“Kusanagi, Jin.” Yusaku read off the plaque next to the door. 

“He's my origin. Jin has been hospitalized here for a few years now,” Lightning stated, and Yusaku brought the tablet back up to see him. The Ignis was as blank as ever. 

“You and him are like AI and me then?”Yusaku questioned before getting closer to door so he could peak through the narrow window. While the room had been dark there was enough light coming from the hallway for him to see a figure frozen to his chair staring vacantly back at him. It deeply unnerved him how empty the other teen's eyes were. 

“As you can see we are not exactly like you and Ai. He was unable cope with what the other humans throw at him and collapsed in on himself,” The Ignis voice finally made him look away. 

You Lose

Yusaku had to force the memory away to keep present. He looked down the hallway to avoid thinking about the duel screen before staring down at the tablet. That didn't stop the creeping phantom shocks crawling over his skin. 

“You humans are both surprisingly fragile and utterly sadistic. They presented Jin with the promised of being saved. Only to ripe that hope away from him without mercy over and over again,” Lighting said Yusaku made the mistake of glancing back into the room. 

He was going to be sick. No wonder the Ignis had such a complex about humans. How could they do that to the other teen? Wasn't it enough to snatch them off the street, starve, and electrocute them?

“Hey are you alright?” Spoke a new voice. Yusaku pulled himself together before looking at the stranger. The man kind of resemble the teen they had been watching. He was likely a relative of Jin's come to visit the teen. 

“There you are ----, I've been looking all over for you,” complained an orderly walking towards them. 

“---, are you alright?” The man repeated.

“----” The orderly echoed while the hallway and everyone in it began blurring. 

“-----?!”

“Yusaku!” He snaps back into the present with the Kusanagi standing in front of him with both hands on Yusaku's shoulders like he's ready to start shaking him. 

“Oh, thank fuck,” the man mutters bending down needing to calm himself down before angrily looking back at Yusaku. 

“Don't do that again! You scared me...”

“Because of Jin,” Yusaku replied still uncomfortable allowing someone else that close. 

“Yeah, I can't handle seeing people staring off like that anymore,” Kusanagi breaths out and establishes some space between them. 

“Anyway, mind telling me what you were thinking about? 

Yusaku frowns and turns back to the grill, “Nothing.”

The man shrugs his shoulders in defeat, “I'm not sure who's more mysterious you or Playmaker. Maybe one day I'll get an answer to my questions.”

“I am not mysterious,” He mutters as a customer approaches the truck window. For some reason Kusanagi will often park his cafe in a secluded area by the sea. It worked for their shadier operations but for the business it didn't make sense. 

The man ordering his usual order now was one of the few people that came by cafe Nagi when it was here.

Kusanagi's not the only one with a sense of deja vu about someone. The white-haired man struck Yusaku as someone he knew, but he brushes it off as the stranger being some old classmate or something. He's probably gotten used to seeing him at the cafe, that's all. 

“Thank you,” the customer says before walking off back towards the oversized mansion down the road.

“So I'll let the hospital thing slide but I want to know what happened in that dungeon. I trust you but sometimes it feels like your keeping critical information from me. We're supposed to be partners right?”Kusanagi questions side eyeing him as the man disappeared in the distance. 

“We are. That monster took me by surprise that is all,” it's not a complete lie. He knew the monster who attacked that Knight of Hanoi. It was Ai. He harboured no doubt about that but that left Yusaku with more questions then he had before.

“Yeah. You don't see a giant worm thing with fangs like that everyday but you ran off pretty quickly after that,” the man remarks reaching over Yusaku to shut off the stove. 

They watched the phantom on the other side of the room vanish and something inside him clicked right as a large black and purple snake-like creature came out of the dark separating the two sides of the room. It had snapped up the Knight before Yusaku had the time to process what was happening. Then they were both gone leaving him and Kusanagi staring down into the abyss he came from. 

He being Ai. The idiot Yusaku's been searching for all this time! 

“We gained the deck we went there searching for. That was enough for the day,” Yusaku replies taking off his apron. 

It was more than enough. That deck proved, Ai was the monster in the dungeon. That night after they printed out a psychical copy of the deck Yusaku excused himself and ran back to his apartment. He remembers slamming the door behind him before sinking down to the floor against it. Without thinking about he pulled out the cards and thumbed through them a few times. Linkuriboh, Honeybot, Backup Secretary, Firewall Guardian, and so many others.

His chest ached; his family was missing, and his friends were reduced to cards. Creatures with their own personalities and lives treated as nothing more than data for that loathsome card game. To top it off the person he's been searching for was right in front of him and Yusaku couldn't do anything about! His connection to Ai fizzled out as soon as he sank back into the darkness. Why hadn't he conveyed anything to Yusaku? Why was he leading him along instead of telling him what he wants?

Half lost in his own head again, Yusaku hangs up his apron and bids the concerned man good night. 

Back then in spite of his miserable state he could sense a spark in his link sense. It was this warm, well known feeling that eased his nerves. Eventually he focused himself enough to see Honeybot and Backup Secretary standing in front him. 

They both smile at him before Honeybot cheered, “ We finally contacted you!”

She bends down onto the floor with him while Backup Secretary frowns, “We've all been so worried. Ever since Cyberse was attacked no one's been able to find you. We thought you got absorbed into the network like many of the others.”

“Your real?” Yusaku asked. Both were translucent but he could feel Honeybot's hand pressing down on his knee.  
As Honebot was about to respond they both vanished leaving him to stare at his otherwise vacant apartment. Yusaku got up and went straight to his computer. Maybe Lightning could help him figure out whether or not he's losing his mind. 

“Hey!Watch where you're going Jackass,” shouts some thug not to far in distance. What's with him today? He can't keep zoning out like that. In his neighborhood it'll get him mugged, again. Though most people have figured out he doesn't have anything for them to take.That hasn't prevented the odd fly by night thug from trying. Kusanagi has yet to let him hear the end of it since last time he showed up at the cafe with a bandage on his head from a particularly rough encounter. 

His mission is more important than some ratty apartment or some street thugs. Yusaku is going to find Ai and end the Hanoi once and for all. Not only were they involved with the Lost Incident but they wronged him a second time going after their home. He would get his revenge even if it means dealing with the miscreants of humanity to do so. 

For tonight however, he needs to get his head on straight. Yusaku makes it into his apartment without issue and settles in for another long night of searching for any lead he can find. 

Being distracted like he's been today would only get him killed or worse. Funny how a children's card game has become so life threatening but then again it's always been that way for him. Between the Incident and Lightning's fight or die approach to teaching him to speed duel...it's never been much of a game for him. 

“If you do not take this seriously, you will die,” Lightning's voice remarked out of his duel disk. 

“What?” he demanded, swiveling his duel board in an attempt to keep his balance. Twin Hydradrive knight's attack didn't' deal' deal a lot of damage but it managed to almost knock him off his board. 

“I thought you wanted to take your future into your own hands. If you cannot manage to beat someone as simple as Haru I doubt you'll last long against the Knights of Hanoi,” his duel disk replied dully.

Haru was in fact easy to win against. He was a simplistic AI the Ignis had yet to complete. Lightning said their matches were a win-win. Yusaku would gain experience in speed dueling and he would get the info he needs to make improvements on Haru. 

Yusaku hasn't seen the proto-AI in awhile, so the Ignis might have scraped his programming in favor of some other plan. He can't be certain when it comes to him. Ever since he crossed paths with Kusanagi in Link Vrains Lightning has been selective with his appearances. That means he doesn't see the Ignis as much as he used to. 

He ends up falling asleep at his desk before waking up from a nightmare involving Lighting and Kusanagi. Yusaku doesn't remember what happened, but it's given him this sinking feeling that the two should never meet each other face to face. 

“I've found someone who thirsts for revenge against the Hanoi as while,” he told Lightning after Kusanagi and him agreed to team up. Having someone to watch his back would lift some of the weight off of him when he's fighting the Hanoi. 

“Who?” The Ignis asked taking control of Yusaku's monitor. The shock of bright light in his dark apartment hurt his eyes.  
“Kusanagi, Shoichi. He's been searching for answers for what happened to his brother all this time,” he answered. 

“A human and the older brother of my origin no less. He might be of some use but try not to let him take advantage of you. We both know they can not be trusted,”Like that Lightning disappeared and his room went back to being dark. All the Ignis seem to share a dramatic flare. 

Maybe he can get Kusanagi to brew him an extra strong, extra large coffee. That might prevent him from day dreaming through his shift again. That leaves a few hours of classes for him to end up sleeping through. The past year since he's met the man have been the most consistent his life has been in a long time. He'll fall asleep during some lecture for something he's already proficient in and then run to the cafe for a few hours. Before Kusanagi advises him to go home because he's falling asleep in his chair. 

“I've already brewed you a cup of coffee. I also found an interesting story floating around Link Vrains' message boards,” Kusanagi says when he opens the back of the truck. He puts his school bag down, and the man offers him a large steaming mug of coffee. 

“Thank you.” Yusaku says throwing on an apron. “What did you uncover?”

'Ever hear about datastorms?” Kusanagi asks and then doesn't give him time to respond. Which is fine, he'd have to lie to the man anyway. 

“There's this rumor about a world within Link Vrains where these gusts of data flow from. People say that fierce monsters live in those winds but as far I know it's just a legend.”

Cyberse world has been an urban legend in Link Vrains since it disappeared. People started to speculate why the world no longer had data flowing through it or why new developments were slower then before. 

“Never heard that one,” Yusaku lies staring out into the courtyard. For once the vendor parked in a busy a place, it was only a matter of time before things picked up for them. Sol Tech could no longer profit off it.

“That's not the only bit of gossip I came across either,” Kusanagi says furrowing his eyebrows and turning serious. “ Sol Technology is beefing up their security in an attempt to catch something.“

“Who would believe a runaway program could exist? It's not like they have free will but they plan to perform a scan for it tonight.”

Yusaku forces his expression to stay neutral, “Yeah, I've never heard of an AI like that.” 

He hates how other humans think the AIs they're creating and abusing are nothing more than soulless beings. Even something as simple as Roboppi had its own personality. No matter how underdeveloped. Only he can't correct the man if he's going to maintain his cover. Yusaku couldn't exactly be honest with Kusanagi about his life whenever the man asked. He ended up lying instead, while half-truth at least, he an orphan when it comes to human family members. 

Seems he never belonged here. 

“You know Yusaku I'm sorry for dragging you further into this mess. You should be spending your time being, a normal college student; studying, getting drunk, working and I can't think of anything else. You already don't sleep and drink way too much caffeine,”Kusanagi shakes his head taking a deep breath and sighing.

“And you work here, so you have the shitty part-time job too.”

“The cafe is better than most places considering we invest more time online then we do serving hot dogs. Also I'm doing this of my free will. I promise[d] to get revenge on those who took your younger brother and my past,” Yusaku replies stabbing one of the hot dogs on the grill at little too hard. The Hanoi were going to pay dearly for what they've done. Kusanagi offers him this peculiar look before grabbing the skewer. 

“I'm grateful to have you on board, but you are scary sometimes. You're the definition of looks can be deceiving. Short and Scrawny but shaper than a knife.”

“Sure,” he replies...wait! Sol's searching for a fleeing program. “Kusanagi, I have an idea.” 

Yusaku pulls the man into one of the chairs behind them and hastily shuts down the cafe so they can get to work. 

“What? We have to get ready for dinner rush,” Kusanagi mutters looking to him for some kind of answer. That doesn't matter, Sol Tech is searching for Ai and they'll find him if Yuskau doesn't get to him first.

“We're going to catch that program first,” he says flicking on the computer screens. They have to. Who knows what Sol Technologies will do if they get their hands on Ai. Not to mention the Hanoi are out for him too. 

“What?” Kusanagi repeats, “There's no way we could manage that in the limited amount of time we have.”

Yusaku lips twitch up almost in a smile. It pays to have been raised by AI sometimes. 

“It won't take long if we work together.”

Kusanagi relents and they get to working on an escape route Ai could take into Yusaku's duel disk. They're almost done when his link sense begins sparking wildly. Something is about to happen in Link Vrains, and he needs to finish the pathway before it's over. 

“Yusaku look!” Kusanagi yells pointing at the screen showing the Hanoi goons breaking into the server and wreaking havoc on Link Vrains. A few more strings and he's done!

“Found you,” he mutters finishing the line they needed. Ai's not getting away this time. 

Yusaku jumps out of the truck to make the connection between his duel disk and Link Vrains easier. There's this feeling of a pressure bearing down on him while that sparking sensation starts to remind him of real electric shocks. 

There's a click and the sensations start fading out. Yusaku glances down at his duel disk and smiles at the black and purple eyeball. 

“Ai,” He whispers so Kusanagi wont overhear him.“Hello, You are going to help us get our revenge.”

“What?!” Ai shrieks. Its strange having to stare at an animated eyeball again. At least this version of Ai isn't as creepy, especially since it's struggling and looking for a way out.

“Try but you won't be able getting out of the trap we set for you,”Yusaku says. 

“Eep! There's no way I've been captured!” Ai cries, literally cries. His screen shows a stream of tears going down it. Still as overdramatic as ever, huh. 

Kusanagi comes closer to get a more extensive look at Ai,” So you're the AI everybody is after.”

“I'm just a normal AI!” the Ignis lies. Is Ai playing dumb because the other man is around? He hasn't done anything to indicate he recognizes him but Yusaku has always been able to tell whenever Ai lies. He's blatantly lying now. The Ignis has always been and still is a terrible actor.

Then Yusaku notices the Hanoi going after random nobodies on the screens in the courtyard. There's no time for this now. He won't tolerate letting a single one of those goon slip by him not even for their reunion. He can interrogate the idiot later. 

“Wait! I just got out of there!” Ai whines while Yusaku runs into the VR room to log into Link Vrains.

“I didn't ask your opinion.”

Ai didn't seek his when he forced Yusaku to come back here. This is only fair.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> "I'm doing this of my free will. I promise[d] to get revenge on those who took your younger brother and my past" Ai isn't the only dramatic one here...that's one of two lines i took from the first episode verbatim. Including the line about not asking Ai's opinion.
> 
> I don't plan to cover everything just a few important points...freakin Revolver and Playmaker are going to be fun to write though. Rewatched season one to find those points and I still have so many questions but production issues so eh. Either way I'm trying to integrate Lightning a bit more, there's years of potential backstory here so we'll see what i can do lol. There's a scene I wanted to get too but right here is a good stopping point.


	3. Who I Used to Be

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> No card games were explained in the making of this fic lol.
> 
> On with the show!

Yusaku collapsed onto his knees out of breath while the data storm Lightning conjuried died down. His whole body protested against standing upright any longer once he made it back onto the solid, unmoving ground. They've been at this almost a year now. One would think the Ignis would understand there are limits to what he can do but no Lightning kept pushing. 

For awhile Yusaku would black halfway through the majority of his matches. On numerous occasions whatever half-built AI he was dueling would have to catch him before he fell to his untimely demise. Then when he woke up they would go right back to dueling him. 

Haru was the exception. The proto AI had a few more options he picked from. His favorite was taunt and tease him until Yusaku got back up and sent him flying into a nearby building. Somedays he wasn't so lucky. 

“Giving up already? What wasted potential. No one wonder he abandoned you, "Lightning mocked guilding up to him with his signature sneer plastered on his face after his latest match. 

What? He looked over confused. 

“You know exactly who I'm talking about. Think about it. What use is someone who cannot defend themselves? You will never find Ai like this and it would be pathetic to even try. 

As if Yuskau hadn't been feeling low enough, Lightning's words craved a space for themselves in his mind. Deep down he knew Ai would never leave him like that but at the time it was hard not take the statement to heart. 

Time and again he would sense Ai for a brief moment while he was alone before he was gone again. Slipping away without so much as a word to him. It caused this lingering doubt inside Yusaku that he couldn't shake. He was already an outsider with his own species. It was and still is devastating to think he could be disregard that easily by any of them too, especially him. 

Yusaku slowly made it back to his feet despite the spiking pain in his muscles. What was the point in dwelling in doubt when he could find and ask Ai himself? 

Lightning's eyes scrunched up in vague interest, “Determined to keep fighting in spite of your human limitations?”

* * *

There's a quick flash of light over his eyes before a robotic voice says, “Scan complete.” 

“Yep, He's awake he's just pretending to be a sleep,” follows Ai's now slightly less computerized voice. 

“Sounds about right. Let's try this then,” Kusanagi adds and Yusaku gives up on the idea of trying to go back to sleep. Begrudgingly he opens his eyes to the man holding a steaming cup of coffee. 

Kusanagi laughs, “See easiest way to get him up, is the promise of caffeine!” He grumbles and takes the cup while Ai and Kusanagi continue to laugh at his grogginess. Good to know they seem to get along well. 

Wait weren't they in Link Vrains? Didn't Ai just devour that goon Yusaku beat? They need to search through his data and see if he knew anything. He slams the mug down on accident before turning to the computer. 

“Woo!Slow down ,” Kusanagi says grasping Yusaku shoulder lightly. “We've alright looked, our AI over there didn't catch anything interesting. 

“Plus you need more rest.” 

“I am fine,” he tries to argue but the man shakes his head. 

“No you're overworking yourself again. Today you're going home and getting some rest.” 

“He's right Playmaker. You did kind of pass out right after you logged out,” Ai chimes in. Great now he has two people to nag him about his unhealthy habits. However, he does need to talk to the AI alone and his apartment would be a good place for that. They're in for a long grueling discussion aren't they? 

“Well if everyone's in agreement,” Kusanagi says shepherding him out of the truck. Yusaku snatches Ai off the counter and goes along with him without further complaints. 

They get there soon and Yusaku thanks the man before walking towards his apartment. “Now that we're alone are you going to continue to pretend you don't know me?” 

“Playmaker you say something?” Ai squeaks glancing in the other direction. 

“Yes I did Ai,” He replies glaring down at Ai before unlocking the door to his apartment. The AI squeals indignantly at him before scanning around the small space. 

“You are a terrible actor by the way.” 

"What do you know!? You're taste has never been as spectacular as mine!" Ai replies. 

Yusaku connects his duel disk, basically Ai, into his computer and perches himself on the chair next to it waiting for the Ignis to crack. Judging by the absurd imitation of a pout his singular eye is able to do it won't take too long. He's willing to wait, it's already been an not insignificant amount of years already. What a few more minutes? 

Roboppi makes Its presence known first. The little cleaning bot buzzes out of Its usual hiding place, “Greetings Master!” 

“Hello Roboppi,” He replies and Ai squirms inside the duel disk huffing. 

“Yusaku! How could you! You tried to replaced me!” 

“Ee, Hello, my name is Roboppi,” the little robot responds cheerily. Yusaku lifts the pouting eyeball up show It, Ai. 

“How could you!? You replaced me with this dumb thing!” The eyeball whines studying his miniature blue maid bot. It had been a gift from Kusanagi. Not long after they met the man shoved the box at him ranting about how it would give him peace of mind over Yusaku's apparent lack of consistent self care. Mostly Roboppi pesters him to eat and sleep on top of keeping their small apartment clean. 

“At least Roboppi has limbs,” He mocks and Roboppi throws Its little arms up cheering. 

“So mean!Where did my cute little Yusaku go!?” 

“Oh, so you do remember me?” He replies handing the duel disk to the robot so Roboppi could play with it. There's no one else around but them, Ai doesn't need to keep up the act. 

“Ah!Put me down you idiot!” The duel disk whines and Roboppi's pre programmed AI replies. “Idiot is a forbidden word!” 

“You replaced me this simpleton!” Ai yells resentful of the other AI poking and prodding at him. Out of some small sense of mercy grabs the disk and places on the desk away from Roboppi's reach. Poor little robot tries and fails to reach up but comes short a few inches. Yusaku feels a tinge of pity but Ai's shrieking has been grating on his nerves since they walked in. Knowing him the Ignis is doing it on purpose. 

“It has been almost a decade since you ran off,” maybe he's more bitter about that then he wants to admit openly but it's true. 

Ai huffs and his single eyeball shifts until he settles on looking serious, “By the way my limbs were taken off by that big scary dragon...but that's not the point is it?” What was I supposed to do I had to protect what's left of ou-Cyberse world.” Yusaku eyes narrow, he picked up on the that minor slip up. Ai was going to call it their world so he growls out, “Our world. You could have spoken to me anytime in the last few years but you kept slithering away from me.” 

“Hey! It's not like that...I thought maybe you would be alright going back to humanity and I still do! Kusanagi seems attached to you my little grump,” Ai explains and he stares down at the talking eyeball. Little? Ai's one to talk he's barely more than a few inches tall when he stretches. 

Yusaku checks the time on his computer before deciding they can hold off on the rest of this conversation until later. Kusanagi had been right, he's feels drained. He only makes it a few steps before something soft and malleable wraps around his midsection halting him in place. He'd know the strange but familiar feeling of Ai's more monstrous form anywhere. Almost decade later and he still instinctively wants to reciprocate. First though he wonders how Ai can manage his bigger form but not his humanoid one? 

'Ai ran from you for years. Can you really trust him?' Yusaku freezes up before he can return the gesture. The deep-seated doubt he thought he buried a long time ago resurfaces long enough to pull him back into the reality that's been his life the last few years. 

“I missed you even if you've grown into a big meanie,”Ai murmurs nuzzling the top of Yusaku's head. “I'm not the only one either.” he continues nudging him to turn around. 

“What is it?” He asks and his link sense sparks for a second before Decode Talker materializes next to them. 

Ai and him had pulled Decode Talker out of the datastorm during the battle against the Knight of Hanoi. Before the duel ended he felt this sense of fondness from the monster on the field before it disappeared. It's one more monster back with him, argh them now, considering the rest of the Cyberse monsters with him. Everyone else is also probably ecstatic to have It back. 

The Knight stabs its translucent sword into the ground before kneeling down just like he did when Ai first tried to introduce them. Now he's not a scared little kids that's going to run from the big frightening monster. Now Decode Talker is his friend and weapon against those who wrong them. His knight. 

That being said Yusaku's hands still can't wrap around one of Decode's fingers. so the monster lets out a deep chuckle before patting him on the head and disappearing. At the same time Ai unwraps himself and settles back into the duel disk across the room. 

The doubt dose of reassurance from both of them didn't completely blow out his sense of doubt but it was enough for him for the moment. Now he wants to sleep and deal with this all when he's not spent. Since it's him, Yusaku doesn't have the time to come bring any of it up again. He's too busy being sought after by charisma duelists who can't take not being in the spotlight for five minutes.

Making a live debut like that had been a mistake. They've upped the security on Playmaker's account because some idiots were trying to track him. The one thing Kusanagi had been able to find in the one knights data was Knight of Hanoi's leader- Revolver. He's sure to be on of those searching for Playmaker's identity too. 

Some idiot he had to deal with in real life too, like his old high school associate Shima. The other man would random pop up while Yusaku was taking a quick break to exclaim how much he loves Playmaker. Ai hasn't let that slide either. He's enjoys making little jokes about them being Soulmates. So Yusaku ends up silencing him most of the time when they're outside. 

After a rather aggravating encounter with his devoted fanboy Kusanagi calls him to hurry to the truck. Apparently one of those charisma duelist were out for revenge against him, Blue Angel, another one of his old classmates. It's not possible last either of them checked she was in the hospital in a coma after their last run in. 

Or more specifically her run in with the Hanoi and his defeating her because no one associated with the Knight of Hanoi were going to get away from him. 

This leads to him getting captured by Aoi's overprotective older brother. The infuriating man refuses to listen to reason each time he tries to explain its the Hanoi holding the girl hostage not him. 

The most insufferable part of the whole situation is that's Revolver interference is what gets Zaizen to release him. He won't listen to reason from him but the terrorist claiming to have hurt his sister is believable? Human remain a mystery to him. 

“Playmaker you don't hate me?” Zaizen says and he wants to ignore the man but he doesn't want to have to deal with him later. Revolver is more important than some minor grudge. 

“No, I hate the Knights of Hanoi,”he replies before promptly jumping on his d-board to chase after the Knight. He can deal with the man and his sister complex later. 

“You've been quite the thorn in our side for a while now, but your no different from the rest of them. I'll squash you like the nuisance you are,” Revolver taunts ounces Playmaker catches up to him. 

“No, I'll beat you and find out who each and everyone one of you are,” He counters keeping pace. 

“Yeah Playmaker's going to beat you! And when he does I'll eat you!” Ai chimes in and Revolver smirks, “When I win I'll deconstruct you piece by piece.” 

“We only have one goal and it's to destroy you Ignis.”

“Ignis?” Ai and him reply at the same time. So he is the man who destroyed they're world. 

“Oh? You're helping it and don't even know what it is?” He sneers speeding ahead. 

“It doesn't matter what It is. My goal is revenge, It's merely a pawn,” Yusaku retorts grimacing inwards. He hates having to refer to Ai like that but this man could take the most miniscule hint of familiarity between them and figure out who Playmaker is. 

Revolver starts monologuing like the self-righteous villain he is instead,” The internet world is a fiction. What's important are the breath and heartbeat of life. But people are mislead by fake user-friendliness and bonds, entrusting their souls to this fiction. Not realizing this folly will destroy the world! 

Causing people mental damage that can kill their real bodies is the right way to achieve this goal? Hypocrisy thy name is Revolver. Not that he cares about the morality of the situation. His main concern is revenge but the circles this man must think in have to be maddening.

Even if he's a self-righteous fuck, Revolver is stronger than all of the mooks he's faced put together. Lightning is going to have a field of him after watching him struggle so much. Right now he needs to stay focused on this match instead. 

“Playmaker, There's someone who'd like to help,” Ai hints pointing his eye towards the datastorm nearby. Since his life points are low enough he can use his skill. A similar sensation to the one he had when Decode Talker came out of the datastorm ran over him. They know the monster he pulled out of it, Firewall Dragon. 

Revolver pulls off another surprise by pulling a monster of his own out of the datastorm. Why are there Cyberse monsters willing to aid the man? Then again it's possible Yusaku never ran into any of the monsters in his deck before. None of the ones he's summoned have been familiar to him. 

Then the man twists around and flies towards open rumble below them and hops off his d-board, “We'll finish this as a master duel.” 

The change in scenery doesn't do much to change the back and forth between them. Yusaku cannot manage to get an inch in this duel and as soon as he does Revolver has a counter ready to spring. 

“Fire Prisons effect activates; Cyberse [on] the field, [in the] graveyard, and [in] hand loss their effects and can't attack. Cyberses also can't be targeted by effects nor attacked! 

“It's as if cyberses don't exist!” 

Around him Decode Talker and Encode Talker blur out of existence. Ai is next to start glitching out. 

“Playmaker....” Ai cuts out before he can finish his statement. Along with his unnatural connection to all of them. He's cut off from his home world again! 

No! He refuses to let this happen again! 

“It is simple, use your link sense to find me,” Lightning instructed disappearing into a blur of data. The Ignis had a habit of pushing at Yusaku strange connection to the network around them. He said it was similar to theirs so it should be feasible. It was another thing that made him different from the humans he had been trying to acquaint himself with. 

Lightning helped him hone it into something he could vaguely control, “Right.” There were plenty of limitation to what he could do. 

While Revolver's busy monologuing about the creation of the Ignis and Cyberse world. He focuses on trying find the links between him and the rest of Cyberse. He already knows about the creation of the Ignis he doesn't need the overblown explanation, mythic comparison included. 

“Ignis created the Cyberse and [are] trying to conquer the network. We'll do whatever it takes to kill Ignis and the Cyberse.” 

That makes him lose focus for a second. He refocuses on the match in time for Revolver to call his next attack. One that takes out most of his remaining life points and sends him flying to rumble behind him. 

Lightning's oppressive glare seemed to go right through him, “I thought you were determined to spite your human limitations. seems I was right you are weak. You can't even save yourself how will you save them?” 

No! It's his turn to make sure they all get out of this alive. Ai still has a lot of explaining to do and he refuses to lose to some pompous judgemental terrorist. Sluggishly he makes his way back to his feet. Alright he's standing but what can he do to get out of this situation? Yusaku needs to think of something fast or he will lose for real. 

A strong tug on his link sense alerts him to the presence of Firewall in his deck. The dragon was trying to tell him something. If Firewall is still around so is that Idiot. 

“Ai I know you can hear me,” He says tapping the screen, “ I could use your help with this.” 

After a few seconds of no response he goes through with summoning Firewall Dragon without him. Doing so starts the process of bring everyone else starts back. The dragon flies out of the link portal and sets Itself behind him. It would help if it didn't wrap Itself around him defensively. 

“Firewall always was super protective of you and guardian,” Ai chimes back with them, him. 

“Interesting program, you modify it yourself?” Revolver mocks torn between shock at him getting around his strategy and his hatred for the Cyberse creatures.

“No and there's more to them then your twisted self indulged rants could ever imply.” he counters continuing his turn. 

“You're a fool if you believe those illusions are anything more then bits of data created to like you!” The man retorts starting to lose his composer. 

“Those illusions kept me alive after humanity decided I was better off a test subject! One for the experiment that created the Ignis you hate so much during that Incident all those years ago,” he growls setting up to finish the duel. He's going to lose his temper if this keeps up and he doesn't need anything else to slip out. 

He can't stop the next piece of himself from slithering out though, “I lived with them for years after that. They're my family and I will get revenge for all wrongs you and the rest of the Knight of Hanoi have wrought! 

Revolver steps back surprised by the admission before muttering to himself, “That Incident...there was one kid...I can't let that distract me now. Playmaker I will win this duel!” 

“To bad,” Playmaker remarks smugly before pulling off the win. Firewall and Decode Talker might have been a bit smug about it too. They vanish off the field and Ai's monster form lunches at the man, snapping at his arm before Revolver floats away. 

At least for a terrorist, he's a man of his word. He gave Playmaker the remedy for what he did to Blue Angel before being beamed away. Yusaku being similar in that way gives it to Zaizen before logging out himself. 

As soon as he makes it out he collapses against the wall of the VR room spent from that duel. 

“Neh, Yusaku is this a normal occurrence? Because I don't think this amount of exhaustion is normal,” Ai says watching him. 

“I'm fine. Give me a few moments and we will search through the data you got from him,” he replies slumping into the wall. It might be a few minutes before he gets back up. 

“Hey Yusaku, you alright?” Kusanagi asks knocking on the room door before opening it anyway. “Oh I keep telling you, you need to look after yourself better. It might help with the exhaustion.” 

The man bends down and yanks him up gently before plopping him into one of the chair by the desk. “I shouldn't be able to do that so easily.” 

'Maybe you have muscles,” he says shrugging. It's not his lack of sleep or food that causes his exhaustion. The excessive sluggishness is a leftover present from the incident and seven years in a coma. His body can barely keep up with his everyday life. The added stress from battling in Link Vrains only makes it worse, but he hasn't told the other man that. 

Kusanagi would try to stop him from continuing on his path towards revenge. 

“I told you Yusaku! See I said it wasn't normal,” Ai starts ranting before the other man grabs him and links him into their computer. 

“Eep hey! I wasn't done yet!” 

“While if that's the case shouldn't we find out what you managed to get from him before Yusaku passes out on us?” Kusanagi questions ready to start typing. He turns to the keyboard too keeping his objections to the statement to himself. 

“Wait first I've got something cool to show you!” Ai shouts popping out of the duel disk excited. “Watch this!” 

His disk shines excessively before a few limbs make their way out followed by the rest of Ai's old humanoid form. 

“I'm handsome aren't Ai!” 

Both Yusaku and Kusanagi unimpressed by it go right into probing through the other files he managed to snatch from Revolver. 

“Hey!” 

“Actually Yusaku would you mind if I asked you something?” The other man inquiries hauling his typing to stare at him. 

Yusaku grimaces, “Go ahead.” 

“If you're sure? I want to ask about what you said to Revolver. You know about Cyberse world,” Kusanagi says getting up. “I'll make us some coffee and we can pull some teeth.” 

“You really are that bad at talking to other people now aren't you?” Ai teases wagging a finger at him. He missed the weirdness of having a human-esqe AI around instead of an eyeball. 

“So you're going to stop skirting around the fact you know me?” he replies crossing his arms. 

“Eep,” Ai squeaks before shrinking back into the duel disk. 

“Well that answers one questions. Here I added an extra shot in yours,” Kusanagi says sitting back down and sliding him the other mug. 

The man takes a deep breath before starting, “So I know about the incident but I'm curious...You lived that AI and a bunch of other for years?” 

“Him, Ai likes to refer to himself as male to make it easier on people,” Yusaku replies watching the small pointed head creep back out at the sound of his name. 

“That's right!” 

“So that's why you were in the hospital back then?” Kusanagi asks sinking into his chair. That question peaks Ai's interest too, so he turns to Yusaku as well. 

“I spent close to a year in that hospital after Ai logged me out. I lived in Cyberse world with him, the other Ignis, and the Cyberse monsters for years after the Incident until,” Ai interrupts his explanation. "Until that wacko acted our world! And Ai oh so amazingly saved the day!” 

“No wonder you're so awkward,” the man laughs reaching out to pat him on the shoulder. "You said they're you're family right?"

Ai and him both node at the question.

"So his name is Ai then?" Kusanagi laughs smiling some. “Don't worry I can keep a secret and I'm willing to wait if you want to tell me anything else.” 

“Thank you,” he replies and they both go back to the computer. Not long after Yusaku slips into unconsciousness. 

"Yusaku. When were you going to me you found Ai?"Inquires a sharp voice.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So it took me a bit with this chapter because it was giving me an existential crisis every time i tried to write it so I had to find a way for that not to happen. Funny how trying something from a new perspective can be so helpful. 
> 
> One would think I've learned a thing or two since attempting Nexus...I have but I haven't figured out how not to stray from a-b to a-f...oh takeru i will get to you! Maybe then I feel less Like I'm writing the scenes between scenes lol. Side note quoting ryoken is hilarious, he's over dramatic as hell and it's great.
> 
> Anyway ramble aside, I hoped you liked it too =)


	4. Falling like the Fahrenheit

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> _Do you think salvation waits for you? ___

Everything is blindingly bright. Yusaku can't make out anything under the intense light. Wasn't he in Kusanagi's truck?

“I'll ask again. When were you going to tell me you found Ai? Or did that minor detail slip your feeble memory?” The voice inquires, losing patience with him.

The unnatural light coming off of everything finally starts to dim down enough for Yusaku to take in the empty hallway. Grand, vacuous, and garishly lit—Lightning's signature style. One could only imagine what the actual rooms in the place look like. The Ignis must have logged him.

“Where are we?” Yusaku asks, staring down into the shadowy hallway across the way from them instead of answering the question. Some part of him wants to see what's hiding beyond it. The Ignis' expression appears prideful for a moment. He lets the initial question slip by for the moment.

“That is not important, for now there's someone I would like you to meet,” Lightning replies, turning to the dark hallway. “Meet my newest project.”

Out of the dark strolls a tall, broad but vacant looking AI. There was something uncanny about it, something missing that struck him as being between the less complex AI Lightning used to make and Haru.

“As you can tell there is a lot of work to be done on him, but once everything is over with those annoying Knights of Hanoi I would like you to help me complete him. He could use a human touch.”

Maybe it's the way Lightning said “human” or the manic glint in his eyes as he spoke. Either way, it sends a shiver down Yusaku's spine. The Ignis always has ulterior motives for everything and Yusaku tends to end up suffering for it in some way.

“You seem concerned? Perhaps I could shine some light on your worries?” Lightning offers signaling for the other AI to come closer.

“We are close, are we not? The last few years we have built a shared trust, correct?”

“Yes we are,”he replies. The question brings this sense of dullness over him. Being around Lightning in general tended to bring his guard down significantly. It shouldn't be that strange though, he trusts the Ignis with his life despite his vicious nature. There is no other way to describe Lightning but he can't blame him for it.

It would be hypocritical. Still, there was always a lingering sense of wrongness when they were together that he couldn't place.

“Good,” Lightning says, floating up to close towards his face. “Now be sure not to tell Ai about us.”

One second the Ignis is reaching out for him, and the next he's jolting up in bed. Yusaku needs to talk to him about logging him in and out like that.

That's one more thing for the list of questions he needs to speak to the Ignis. The other one being why Ai never said anything about something out of the usual. One of them should have picked up on Lightning since the other Ignis would have needed to get around him to gain access to his dual disk. So far he hasn't said anything.

He doesn't get the opportunity to bring it up. They're too busy with Ghost Girl. Sol's favorite mercenary and whatever scheme she's carrying out for them now.

“It's a trap!” Ai shouts after reading the message faster than he or Kusanagi can. Danger doesn't matter if there's a chance Sol might know something about the Incident that they don't know. Some duelists for hire's tricks aren't going to stop them.

“That's kind of our MO At this point, even if it's dangerous we'll try it anyway...” Kusanagi sighs, turning to him. “You'll try it anyway. I'm kind of useless on the offensive.”

“We both knew the risks when we started. Backing away from something that might advance our search would be a waste,” Yusaku replies, grabbing his duel disk off the counter, not paying Ai's complaints about his safety.

As soon as they log in Sol's security alarms start blaring. Followed by a couple of AI goons to chase him down. Surprisingly Blue Angel appears and takes one on because she wants to find answers.

Answers that her brother, Akira Zaizen is keeping from both of them. Yusaku was hoping he wouldn't have to deal with the man and his sister complex after saving his sister.

“Playmaker! Stop here. I know what happened. Please let me handle the rest. I'll expose Sol Technologies sins myself,” The other man pleads, coming between him and Sol's information center. Ghost Girl walks in behind him, lurking off to the side like the shadow she is.

“You know nothing! I have a right to know what happened back then and I will get that information myself,” He retorts ready to duel the man.

“Fine. If I win you stop your revenge here and now,” Zaizen replies calmly.

For a corporate drone, the other man isn't a bad player. More than once managing to turn the duel in his favor.

“I’ll ask one more time. Trust me and let me handle everything! What you've been through is horrible. Please let me bring those horrors to light for you so that you can move on with your life!” Zaizen pleads again after he manages to turn things around on him.

“ _You know nothing about me_!” Yusaku sneers, too angry to keep himself in check. He's not the only one—he can hear the echo from a pissed off Kusanagi from his duel disk. Zaizen knows nothing of what he or any of the kids involved in the Incident have been through! Like hell would he know what it's been like since then!

Yusaku spends Zaizen's next turn trying to keep himself in check. The most he could let show is the way his fists curl up tightly enough that would start to hurt if they weren't in Link Vrains. He takes a deep breath to start settling down when the other man decides to try to be sympathetic, again.

“ _Stop your revenge. Let me handle this and return to your normal life. That's what's best for you; go to school, talk about the future with your friends. The days of youth are irreplaceable. Spend it with your friends._

_You'll cherish these memories in the future. By being obsessed_ _with the past, time is passing you by. Don't let happiness slip away right in front of your eyes. Just like I did....”_

Zaizen might understand what it's like to have to mature fast, but he, Kusanagi, Noaki, and the few who have tried to bridge the gap between Yusaku and everyone else would never understand why he's going through all this trouble. Kusanagi comes close but his brother is real unlike Cyberse, unlike the Ignis. Ai doesn't count as a real person to them. So his ultimate goal of returning home would get him locked up again because it's choosing AI over other people. Other humans whom he can't connect to. Yusaku exhales letting his anger go momentarily before speaking.

“ _Zaizen I don't have what you talked about. Since my life was cut_ _short, I have no future to talk about with my friends or irreplaceable moments_

It took Lightning some time to get him out of that hospital. Even after he did, Yusaku still had to attend therapy as a way to fix him. Make him sociable, outgoing, friendly whatever the person in charge of his case thought was normal but he wasn't. While other kids would talk about their relatives, he couldn't. They would think he was crazy for bringing up Flame and Ai teaching him to read through silly stories about the various monsters they lived with.

Besides, what kind of future can someone like him with such a limited lifespan expect? There's a higher chance of him dying of heart attack or some other sudden illness tomorrow then there is of him living to thirty.

_After the incident...to heal the wounds in my heart I revived treatment for years. I also tried hard to forget that incident. But no matter how much time passed...i couldn't forget. Those horrible memories were burned_ _into my eyes, feasting [in] my heart. It became my flesh and blood that I couldn't dig out._

Those nightmares about the losing screen and feelings of electricity over his skin came back with a vengeance once he woke up too. There was only so much therapy could do to help him with that. Instead of being stuck in pointless sessions he took his life in his own hands and Lightning had been more than happy to assist him.

“ _When I realized that, I decided to face my own destiny. If you think revenge is worthless, that's fine. But there are things I am destined to do to move forward.”_

If he's going to move forward he needs to finish this duel and find out who's responsible for the Lost Incident!

“Decode Talker, end this!”

The attack goes through and the field disappears while Zaizen lets him pass. He lets Ai consume as much data as he wants before logging them both out again. Time to find out who started this madness.

“Are you going to tell me to give you a second and then you'll go looking through my private parts again?” Ai says in almost accusing tone once they're back in the truck. Yusaku rolls his eyes and sighs.

“I'm taking that as a yes then.”

“Of course, now we have more information on Sol Technologies’ part in the Incident,” He replies, getting up.

Turns out Sol Tech didn't have a lot of information about the Incident. All they knew were the basics of what went on and who participated in it. Dr. Kiyoshi Kogami, one of their lead researchers and his small group of lower level researchers. Three were named in some form; Aso, Taki Kyoko, and someone called Dr. Genome.

They didn't have the leisure time to look into those names. The Knights of Hanoi activity begins to pick as the chaos they cause in Link Vrains surges. Random nobody players were starting to fall into some form of coma after running into them. A good number of them were forced to log in and face them simply because they resembled Playmaker in some way. Sensational journalists begin to call the unconscious people, Anothers.

A few of the higher ups in the Hanoi begin searching for him too, while Ai but they need to get through him first. Or so he would have thought.

The first one calling himself Dr. Genome ends up against one of the charisma duelists, Go, the idiot who pretended to be a Knight to get Yusaku's attention. This time his attention seemed more noble. He wants to save a friend of his who was taken in as a possible Playmaker. Go succeeds in beating the man despite his minor existential crisis.

The second is a woman going by Baira. She claims to have created the virus the Hanoi were using to trap people. It's Blue Angel that takes her down and gets her to release the removal program for the virus. Progressively people who were hospitalized as Anothers are released without further issues.

The last manages to get to him, though. Or more specifically got to one of his idiot classmates that ran around Link Vrains claiming to be his soulmate...He only got to Noaki because of one of Ai's stupid stunts. The Ignis gave Brave Max one of his cards as a show of some kind of acceptance as Playmaker's partner or something like that. Ai's insistence on claiming he's Innocent. Yusaku just really wants to punch the idiot but he saves him first. Being a Knight of Hanoi, the man tries to convince him AI is evil until he loses too.

“ _Playmaker! Due to your actions humanity's future will be_..” The man turns to dust before he can finish shouting about how he's doomed humanity by siding with Ai and, unpronounced to him, the other Ignis.

He leaves Link Vrains after that on edge. Three higher ups in the Hanoi were taken down but Revolver is still out there. For they'll just have to keep an eye out for any sign of him making his next move.

“Don't look so glum. Maybe we can have a few days off from saving Sol Technologies ass!” Ai says waving his arms around to get his attention while Yusaku sets him down on his desk.

“Seriously for someone who’s not much of a people person you've been doing a lot of good lately!”

“I could care less about what would have happened to the Anothers. It is the Hanoi that I need to stop, everything else is merely consequential,” He replies, brushing off Ai's attempt to get him to see that he actually _does_ like people. He doesn't even think his relationship with Kusanagi is based on mutually using each other.

“Uh!” Ai huffs crossing his arms. The idiot is a foot tall at most. Even a squirrel is more intimidating than him.

“Believe what you want to,” Yusaku snorts, leaning down on the desk to be closer to Ai's height.

“I believe in you, so. . . ” Ai replies cheekily.

He was going to respond but their link sense sparks intensely for a second before blinking out again. 

“Umm, Yusaku, do you have any idea what that was?” Ai asks, loosening back up.

“I don't know. It was like a distress signal or something from Link Vrains, but. . . ” he trails off, wondering what it could have been. It wasn't one of the Cyberse monsters or even one of the Ignis.

“But it was too fast to pinpoint and track,” Ai finishes, slumping down into the duel disk a couple of inches.

“Yeah,” Yusaku grumbles. He might not know what that was but there was a good chance it had something to do with whatever else the Knights of Hanoi have been planning.

That spark of alarm strikes over and over again at increasing intensities over the next few days until he and Kusanagi are scanning over Link Vrains in the truck. Something cuts off a program the man created to help Yusaku while he was in the network. Kusanagi finishes explaining what it does as the screen he has open to it twitches and notifies them that the program cannons are found.

“What?” the man asks, staring at the screen confused. “That's not good.”

“Let's see if we can find a feed into what's happening in there right now,” Yusaku says looking back at the computer.

Then his link sense flares again and the man looks at him worried. “Yusaku? You alright? You and Ai froze up simultaneously for a second.”

The man frowns and answers his own question, “It's your link sense isn't it, something bad is going down in the network huh.”

“Yep! Ooh! Look there!,” Ai shouts pointing at one of the screens with a live feed. “Pretty lights.”

Those lights were closer resemble a swarm of fireflies zooming around the digital city in search of something.

“Come on,” He says, snatching his duel disk despite Ai's protest.

“What?! Can't we stay here?!”

Yusaku slides into the truck's VR room and glances down at Ai.

“Right, this you I'm talking to,” the Ignis sighs before straightening up and cheering, “alright let's go Playmaker!”

And just like that they're landing on a D-board in some random part of the city. If it weren't for the paparazzi and rabid fans, Yusaku would log in more to ride on the data storm for fun sometimes. Despite the years of grueling death matches on them there's always been something freeing about soaring through the sky. Far away from everyone else.

That doesn't stop another sudden spike in his link sense from almost causing him to fall off. Outside of some grumbles from Ai about safety he manages to right them again without falling. A little further ahead and they spot the swarm of fireflies settling down in some vacant alleyway.

Just his luck too, the little programs belong to Ghost Girl. She's using them to find treasure, valuable information she can sell to Sol Tech. If she wants to run the risk of harm for that purpose he's not going to stop her. All of them hop down into what is essentially Vrain's data recycling/sewage system. Ai is his usual chatty self with the woman as they walk down the pathway until they reach a split. He's the one who seems to enjoy interacting with people for some reason.

“Ooh that's not a very pretty card. Okay I'm going this way, so you can go that way,” Ghost Girl says, gesturing down the right tunnel. “Bye!” She runs off waving and Ai pouts.

“She played me again!”

Outside of a fucking swamp monster! Their tunnel leads to the same place hers did...why does a VR world based around a card game have a monster dwelling in its sewers? That thing tries to kill him before Yusaku slips away from him.

He can wonder about that later. At the end of the tunnel he runs into a grated off room where Ghost Girl is on the brink of losing to Revolver. The more concerning part of the situation is the growing, unstable collection of data in the center of the room.

“Playmaker. Our destiny hasn't come yet but I will be waiting for you,” Revolver calls right as the program they've been hiding here beings to activate.

Right as the ball starts moving he logs. Yusaku follows suit after him. There's not much he can do with the room sealed off like it is. If the footage Kusanagi's streaming is anything to go by he would have been absorbed by the blast had he stayed a minute longer.

“Geez! He is crazy if he's going through all this trouble to erase me,”Ai says. They watch Link Vrains slowly disappear into bytes of data to be absorbed by the looming Tower of Hanoi in the center.

“You sure you want to go after him, Yusaku?” Kusanagi asks, sounding worried. They both know neither of them would be okay with him staying here and letting the terrorist have his way.

“Yeah someone needs to stop that madman and it's going to be me,” he replies, getting ready to go back in. “What do you say, Ai?” He's still rebuilding his relationship to Ai and the other cyberse monsters. He can't fathom the idea of watching them all disappear again, not permanently.

“If you're willing to put yourself out there like this, I am too! Let's do this, Yusaku!” Ai cheers and then they both look at the other man.

“Be safe, Yusaku,” Kusanagi says before the door closes.

He's not the only one willing to risk his existence by coming back into Link Vrains. 'The two charisma duelists that have been interfering with the Hanoi's plans are here too. Surprisingly this time they don't come out of their matches unharmed or even still in one piece. Blue Angel meets her end at the hands of his fellow incident victim.

Victim is not the word for this psycho and this is coming from him.This weirdo is claiming to have enjoyed the torture they went through.

Doesn't help that the other man thinks a tree was his mother. Are all the kids who were involved in the incident messed up? Yusaku’s got a list of issues, Jin spends most of his time catatonic and Spectre as the man calls himself is sadistic, delusional, and a few other things he doesn't have time to figure out. If they're like this how did the other kids turn out? Did the people who said they wanted to help them fail them too?

Things get even stranger when Yusaku destroys the card Spectre thinks represents his mother. The man snaps more and more until he turns into data too at the end of their match.

Then Ai and him run into the other chrimsat duelist Go going against Revolver. The match didn't take long. Link Vrains' _hero_ never stood a chance, not against someone more confident in himself than him. Ever since losing to him, Go's self image twisted and it shows. It's why he falls so easily.

“Tell me, Playmaker, do you think that AI wont turn on? You think it sees you as family the same way your flesh and blood do?” Revolver inquires, leading them towards the top of the tower. He is a dramatic villain if he would go so far as to make a stage for them to fight a second time.

'You would abandon your family for bytes of coding?”

“You think humans aren't as manipulative and evil as you're claiming the Ignis are? Yusaku replies looking over his cards to figure out his next move. “That's a little hypocritical, coming from the leader of a gang of thugs who deliberately beat and harass people on a daily basis. Or are you exempt from that because your goals are _noble_?”

Humans are supposed to have been created in the image of their makers. The Ignis are no different. Ai's lazy, Lightning's vindictive, Flame's snarky, Aqua's the sweetest being imaginable, Earth loves Aqua, and Windy is. . . well, he's hard to pinpoint exactly. The only difference between them and humanity is that they've never tried to tell him otherwise. The Ignis are up front about their flaws while the majority of the humans he's come in contact with try to lure people in with fake kindness. 

Even Lightning is up front with his sadistic tendencies...there's a reason Ai used to try to limit their time together. In the end it only helped Yusaku get this far.

“Ours is a righteous cause. Not that someone as brainwashed as you would understand that,” The other man sneers coming up with counter after counter for each of Yusaku's moves that turn leaving his field empty.

“So much for being the Ignis' grand campanion.”

Revolver's last counter sends him toppling into the ground while clearing his field and taking most of his life points too. Crazed madman? Yes. Bad duelist? Not at all.

“Ehh! I don't want to get deleted! I want to go home to the other Ignis and our old lives! Come on Playmaker you can do this!” Ai cheers, extending out of the duel disk enough to poke at the side of his head. “Once you beat this wacko we can go home finally.”

“You don't want me to go back to the Cyberse world though. You want me to give humanity another chance,” he replies, struggling to bring his limbs back together so that he could get up.

“Eep, I've always been that easy to read haven't I? That doesn't mean I don't want you to visit us sometime! Everyone needs a home they can come back to!” Ai says and Yusaku can tell he's being sincere. Much as he disagrees with Ai about what he should and should do with his life, the idea of having some place to call home again moves him back to his feet. Barely, but his wobbly legs hold up.

Aqua, Ai, Flame, and he jammed themselves onto his bed to plan his move. A good chunk of the Cyberes world rapidly turned into a metropolitan city and the Ignis thought it was a good idea to celebrate. By taking a break from working for the day. They'd even convinced him to move into the city area too so that he was closer to everyone else.

“Don't worry Yusaku, your hut will always be here for you if you want to return. It's my home too after all!” Ai said leaning over and throwing his arms around Yusaku's shoulders. He was smiling. They all were, in their own way. They don't have mouths but their eyes made up for it in a way that was easy for him to understand.

Past and current Ai are right. The only way he's going to get back there is by finishing this duel once and for all. Like any half decent duelist he has a few things he can do to stall until he figures a way out his situation.

“Nice trick, Playmaker, but it only stops your demise for so long,” Revolver sneers, folding his arms tightly across his chest and glaring at him for daring to stand back.

It's hardly a trick though. In a game like this one, even a single card can turn the tide in someone's favor. Like a well clockwork he draws something that will work with the other cards he has to win.

“The only trick here is your Bomber dragon and it won't be here for long,” he replies, setting off the chain that ends in him finally winning the duel. He can feel the small tugging on the ends of his mouth. His mission is finally complete.

“Look! Look! The mighty Playmaker is smiling!” Ai howls gesturing wildly at him .

“Mark my words, Playmaker, I will be back to destroy the Ignis. As long as they exist I will not stop,” Revolver warns before disappearing into bytes of data.

“Shut up,” Yusaku replies smiling down at Ai before logging them out.

He's barely conscious again before Kusanagi flings the door open to greet him. “You did it Yusaku!”

The other man pulls him and squeezes him in a tight uncomfortable hug.

“Can you stop hugging me now?” he asks weakly. Kusanagi grins and helps him into his chair.

“Sorry about that. It's just all that searching and fighting is over, I almost can't believe it,” the man replies, taking a seat too. “I can't wait to tell Jin tomorrow!”

“We should celebrate!” Ai suggests and he takes off the old duel disk and sets it on the table between them.

“We should!” Kusanagi agrees. The looks they share concerns Yusaku a little bit.

Thankfully they both know better then to try to get him to do something he doesn't want to. Kusanagi makes some sort of fancy coffee and some hot dogs before sitting back down. He chats away with Ai while they work on deleting the footage that the frog and pigeon took until the other man asks if he wants a ride home for the night.

He turns the offer down, thinking it would be better to walk since he's still wired from his victory. To make his argument better they open the back door to the truck to see the sparkling water of the nearby sea.

“Hey Yusaku did I ever tell you why I like parking over here?” The other man asks hanging out the door.

“No,” he replies, gazing at the bright streaks of light dancing across the water.

“This is why,” Kusanagi answers, gesturing to the water. “It's an odd phenomena that only happens once in a while but it's a beautiful work of nature.”

“Preettty,” Ai says, pulling himself out to get a better look.

“If you change your mind, I'm gonna hang out a bit longer to clean up a bit. All that hacker work really gets in the way of my job,” the vendor replies, giving him one last grin before swinging the door shut. A few seconds later they can hear the sound of the metal blinds covering the serve window opening.

Ai laughs while Yusaku walks towards a bench close to the water. He sets Ai down before taking a seat himself.

“So you're going back to the Cyberse world without me then?” He asks, glancing over at him.

“Yes,” Ai replies, deflating a little bit. “I should have let you go sooner, but we all love having you around Yusaku.”

“But I'm human so you want me to remain here,” he says turning back to the water. “Are you going to tell me where Cyberse world is?”

“No,” Ai answers and he stares back at the Ignis in disbelief. “I'm sorry Yusaku, but it's better this way.”

“How?!” Yusaku demands, but Ai shakes his head before sinking into the duel disk completely.

“Ai! Ai?” He calls poking at it to get some kind of response but nothing happens, the old piece of junk remains silent. It tore him to look at the blank screen. How could he!? Yusaku spent years of his life searching for him and dismantling the organization targeting them only for Ai to leave like this?

The sound of sirens blaring distract him for a moment. A few emergency vehicles head towards the mansion on top of the neighboring hill.

“I told you not to trust him,” says the voice that he can only guess is here to lecture him. Lightning is standing inside his duel disk where Ai should be and it's wrong.

“Ai always was the most tricky out of all of us.”

Yusaku frowns at him but his reply is cut off by the sounds of sirens going off again.

“You do know who those people are there for, right?” Lighting inquires and he turns back to the mansion. All they can see from down here is the flashing lights over the rocks and tree.

'They're picking up the body of the man who created Ai and me, Dr. Kogami.”

That gets his attention and stares at Lighting, speechless for a few seconds, until the second feeling of betrayal runs through him.

“If you knew where he was, why didn't you tell me?!” He demands.

“What would you have done with the information? Besides the man has been all but dead since the Incident. For an organization that hates AI so much they were more than happy to take orders from a man that might as well have been one,” is the Ignis cryptic reply.

Yusaku sighs and leans back on the bench burned out. The excitement from winning against Revolver left with Ai, leaving an empty feeling in his chest. What Lightning is talking about doesn't matter anymore. Nothing does. Yusaku got his revenge but he wanted more than anything to run away from him again. 

“I see I am boring you with this. I have one more bit of information you might want to know before I get to the point of why I am here. Lightning says, displeased. “Revolver was Dr. Kogami's son. I can only guess but I am assuming he called the police to get his father's corpse before taking off. Of course this is based on information I gather from the Incident and the predictability of human behavior. There is a minimal probability that I might be incorrect.”

He stops talking for a second when they hear the sound of Kusanagi closing up the cafe again.

“The vendor gets his brother back but you get left again,” Lightning states, rubbing salt into his still fresh wound. Yusaku cuts him before he can keep ranting.

“Why don't you tell me where Cyberse world is?

The Ignis scuffs at him, “Because it was completely ruined while you were fighting the Hanoi. Someone else found it and destroyed it. Ai is in for a surprise once he sees it for himself. If you want I can show you, too, if you require proof.”

Before he can stop it, he asks, “How can you be so cavalier about this? You're saying our world was leveled again.”

“It is how I am programmed. I am not one to overreact unlike a certain Ignis,” Lightning replies narrowing his eyes at him.

“I told you before that I needed your help with something. This is it. I need your assistance in dealing with the humans who continue to come for us.

He spreads his arms out wide before continuing, “It's time we strike back against these worthless humans!”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I'm burned out on Revolver...he's interesting to watch but his logic just doesn't. I really wanted to write Playmaker whacking him on the head a few times for being a walking self fulling prophecy.
> 
> Anyway hope this makes sense. Yusaku can be a bit hard, especially when you have to cut most of his development and the fact he's a genuinely good person despite everything lol


	5. The Fire That Runs Through Our Veins

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> I know how pretentious that title sounds i just love that image...and i wish i was able to fit in more fire related comments xD
> 
> CIS- Computer and information sciences

“You're being quiet. Nervous about leaving your grandparents like this?” Flame asks over the steady hum of the train.

“No, I'm thinking about how crazy I am going to appear to him. I mean who goes up to a complete stranger and goes I know who you are!” Takeru replies by drawing an imaginary exclamation point on the window. It's funny in hindsight. If someone had told him he would be on his way to a new city to search for some mysterious hero figure with the help of the sarcastic AI. He would have laughed at them and called them crazy.

Not that anyone would have taken the time to approach him anyway. Takeru barely left his house unless he needed to get away from his grandparents. Even then he kindof gained a reputation for being a punk after punching a few street thugs the few times he did go out.

Now he's the one who's going to sound crazy! Or at the very least like a creepy stalker.

“It will be fine. As long as you can keep your fanboy tendencies in check,” Flame says matter of factually.

“Thanks for the vote of confidence,” he mumbles, shifting around to sit up. What he's going to say slips his mind seeing Flame from another angle. It's still hard to believe he was convinced to move forward by an AI, an AI based on him to be exact. One that claims to have been created from the worst experience in his life. Takeru shouldn't trust him as much as he does but he can't help it.

“You're not thinking of trying to strike me over the head again are you?” Flams asks tweaking his not-eyebrow up curiously.

“No,” He replies, folding his and sinking back into his seat. A small smile makes its way onto his face, despite the jab. “So what do you think Playmaker is like?”

Takeru should have asked him what the hell they were going to do once they got to Den City?! Sure his grandmother made sure he found a place to live but he has no idea how he's going to find Playmaker's real-life version. This city is enormous! They'll be searching for him for ages. If they ever find him!

“Takeru stop thinking so hard. You'll break your brain,” Flame says, and he stops pacing around the room to scowl at him. It didn't take them long to settle into the small long-term hotel room he'd booked for himself. With the help of his grandmother...living as a shut in didn't exactly teach him life skills.

“I can't!” He yells, flinging his hands up before bringing them back down quickly in defeat, “I have no idea what he even looks like.”

Flame sends him this incredulous stare and sighs, “That's why I'm here. Did you remember to pack that tablet Kiku lent you? She will murder you if you lose it.”

“Eep!” Takeru squeaks and then gazing around the room for his suitcase. He runs off to search for it before looking back over at Flame. “Wait. What are you going to do with this old thing?”

“Just bring it here,” he replies.

Turns out he left it on the nightstand next to his bag after he went looking for some snacks he'd packed earlier. Takeru spots it when he glances back at the Ignis before snatching it up and jumping onto the bed. Being a cheap hotel when he hits the bed the impact sends his duel disk flying off when the springs bounce back into their proper place.

“Sorry!” Takeru says, hoping up to make sure it didn't break. He flips it over to see if Flame is okay and is met with a humourless eyeball glaring at him.

“Mind being more careful. It would be a nuisance to replace your duel disk with something with an actual security system,” Flame grumbles popping back out of it.

“Yeah, yeah, mind telling me what you want to show me?” he asks, moving back towards the bed and setting everything down carefully this time. The Ignis reaches out and turns the tablet on before searching through a few programs Takeru can't recognize or comprehend. Until he starts flipping through photos and stops on the average picture of some university student.

“Fujiki, Yusaku. Playmaker,” Flame answers looking back at him and crossing his arms smugly. He rolls his eyes back at him. It's hard to believe he's an AI with his attitude. .

“How do you know he's Playmaker? I can't go around accusing random people of being a wanted hacker,” Takeru asks and the Ignis huffs.

“Well other people don't have an Ignis to confirm their identity. The Dark Ignis may be indolent, but he is reliable.”

“Dark Ignis?” He questions bemused. Takeru pictures an entire army of Flame looks alikes only every single one is an assorted color. The more he thought about them the weirder and more increasingly overwhelming the idea an army of Flames became.

“Yes, my fellow Ignis found his partner sometime ago. Now come back to Earth I have a few more people you might be interested in,” Flame says scrolling through the pictures again and stopping on a girl this time.

That's how the Ignis got him to stop pacing around his room while slowly going mad and take a trip outside. Admittedly it's awkward strolling around the grounds of a university he's technically not a student at. So far no one has asked him for any kind of identification like he thought they would. Of course Flame said he put Takeru in their system in case, but he thinks he might have said that to get him to stop worrying.

Jokes on him, though! He still made it here anyway, so he might as well see if he can track this Yusaku down. They found his schedule and if showed up today he should be around here somewhere. Hopefully.

Takeru definitely doesn't feel like the creepy stalker he thought he would be. It gets even worse when he sees someone he thinks might be him but they're gone before he can reach them. When that doesn't work, he tries talking to students around the computer science building. He's a hacker, so he would be in CIS classes right? Takeru should have attended class more often...

After a few hours he comes across one person he's embarrassed to ask. The Playmaker plushie attached to his backpack is a bit much even for him.

Takeru takes a deep breath and approaches his fellow fanboy with as much dignity as he can muster, “Hello. Can I ask you a question?”

The stranger blinks and points to himself. 'You're talking to me?”

“Yes, I'm looking for someone, and I thought I would see if you knew them,” Takeru replies being as formal and polite as possible. Since he decided to come to Den City, he figured it would help him to cover up his accent to go along with his new appearance. Someone who sounds and looks like they regularly got into a street fight doesn't exactly leave the best impression on most people. Flame told him he was being ridiculous, but he knows how people used to treat him before he changed to appear less threatening. People can be so judgemental.

“Umm, are you going to ask your question or stand there staring at nothing? Because I'm kind in a hurry. Need to get to the cafeteria before they stop serving my favorite pizza!” The stranger says inching away.

He blinks, oops he got sidetracked, “Sorry about that.” Takeru runs his hand through his hair and laughs.

“Anyway, I'm looking for someone named Fujiki, Yusaku. You know him?”

For some reason that earns him a perplexed expression. The stranger tilts his and stares at him before replying, “You're looking for Fujiki? So that loner has friends?! I mean I tried, but he's a bit too cold don't ya think?”

He huffs and continues, “ Sorry, I haven't seen him. He's usually in the class down the hall from me, but I didn't see him today. Probably skipped class again.”

  
“Oh,” Takeru sighs. “Thank you anyway.”

The stranger shrugs nonchalantly before running off. Once he's a good distance away Takeru kicks a nearby light post in frustration until this creeping feeling runs through him. Someone behind him is glaring daggers at his back.

No one is there when he spins around. Even after scanning around he can't spot anyone else around them. That didn't stop him from staring into the lofty opaque window over the entranceway of the building. Whoever it was had been behind that panel of glass but they seem to be gone now.

“Takeru is something the matter?” Flame asks shifting his attention back down to him.

“Yeah, I thought someone was..,” the loud caw of a bird causes him to freeze temporarily. Nothing is close enough to them to be that loud but it sounds like it's hovering overhead. When he glances up the sky is clear.t He hears the sound a couple of more times before it stops.

“You heard that right?”

Flame tilts sideways in confusion, “Heard what?”

Takeru rubs his hands through his hair angrily and yells his frustrations out. He gets the attention of a few students in the distance for a moment before they go back to their busy lives. Great now he looks as crazy as he feels. Flame flails his arms around trying to get him to focus again.

“Takeru how about you find the cafeteria that guy was talking about. I've heard food makes humans function better.”

“Hey! Actually that's not a bad idea,” he agrees and takes a deep breath to calm down before going in the direction the stranger went. Maybe he should go to sleep early tonight too. Might help with whatever that was. He twists back around to look at the CIS building one more time when he gets a good distance away from it. If being a punk taught him anything it was to trust the feeling in his gut and it's telling him to keep an eye out.

“Look there's a sign claiming the cafeteria is over there,” Flame says pointing at him back in the direction of the other buildings. Somehow they manage to get inside and get some food without anything else happening. Or at least the universe held off long enough for him to get halfway through the sad excuse of a sandwich he bought.

“Playmaker has been spotted in Link Vrains,” Flame says before pulling up the screen showing the hero rushing after this bizarre yellow man. Well, his day can't get any weirder can it? Takeru stares at the other people in the room who are all watching the same thing. So people in this city are invested in the adventures of Playmaker. Time to add a new character into their lives.

He dashes off to find some place where he could log into Link Vrains in peace. At the end of an empty hallway, he ducks into a janitor's closet and locks himself in. It takes him a few tries to because he's excited and a little nervous to finally get his chance to meet Playmaker in person! Or while virtual person? Who cares!

“Are you sure you're ready for this Takeru?” Flame asks popping out now that they're alone. He smiles down at him before logging into the Vrains.

He hasn't spent a lot of time as Soulburner but it feels great to jump into his avatar and zoom around on his D-board. Swaying back and forth in the wind like he's riding a wave in the ocean. Only instead of Kiku shouting at him to stop doing dumb stunts, Flame is giving him directions for where to go.

The limited amount of time they did spend in Link Vrains had been used to show him how to speed duel. Oh, Takeru remembers how to duel the traditional way, despite his burning hatred for the game. He just has a hard time keeping up with the rule adjustments and remembering the effects of Flame's, argh his cards. The Ignis had said they were his cards too.

Eventually, he hops down onto one of the free floating isles to watch the duel between Playmaker and a now more human looking individual. Guess they must have missed some unusual developments in the match. For instance why is there a small child flying beside the man Playmaker is dueling? Who's to know if it is a kid behind that avatar. It could even be another AI at this point. 

“ _Look. We found your friend_ ,” He says, observing the two from far enough away that it's hard to get a decent idea of what the other Ignis looks like. From here he might as well be a purple version of Flame.

“ _Friend? That's unthinkable.Don't associate me with that airhead,_ ” Flame replies almost rolling his eyes. For some reason he doesn't seem to want to be seen right now even if they're hidden from view of everyone else.

“So I'm not the only one you're mean to,”he quips grinning to himself. The excitement building inside him witnessing Playmaker duel in person is hard for him to contain. He's itching for his opportunity to jump into action for a change. However his grandfather did successfully drill some disciple into him after all those years in the dojo. So he roots himself in place and waits for the right time to intervene.

It comes when Playmaker's opponent goes flying off his board and smashes into one of the forested isles. From their position they can't see what's happening between them any more, but he can see the two AIs heading towards Playmaker's locations.

“Ready?” He asks Flames before jumping on his board to get between them and Playmaker.

Something unusual they learned while the Ignis was teaching him to speed duel was the extraordinary way his fire motif didn't remain a motif. Fire seemed to appear around him and to a vague extent he could make it appear without much thought. Takeru assumes it's a little thing Flame included in his avatar but the Ignis shrugged it off when asked.

And yes he planned to add it to his grand appearance in Link Vrains to give it some flare. Who wouldn't take advantage of vague fire powers? Especially since it's useless for anything else and he wants to use it for something!

“ _I'll handle them. Playmaker, you go after him._ ” He says sliding between his idol and the strange Ais coming for him.

“ _You [are?]_ ” Playmaker asks looking past him and scowling at the two.

“ _Hurry!_ ” He shouts, turning around to face the pink and blue Ais coming for them.

“ _Thanks_.” It's level and somewhat sarcastic. Takeru doesn't expect anything more from the person who's been videotaped being cold to everyone he comes in contact with. He would have been concerned otherwise. Instead Takeru smirks and prepares to scatter the two bots like ashes in the wind.

“Let's do this, Flame.”

“Fine. I've been waiting to put my skills to use. I am Flame,” The Ignis replies, making himself known to the other two AI that mutter to themselves about them.

“ _I am Soulburner_!”

The duel wasn't too hard. Except for the skill his partner came up with that drains him for reasons. Not to mention Flame isn't the best when it comes to sympathy. When he and Flame win the most beautifully ironic thing happens to Bit and Boot, the two AI they beat.

“ _You are fired_ ,” They yell at each other simultaneously before they both catch fire and dissolve into bytes of data.

_"Fire?"_

As much as he wants to appreciate the win, he needs to catch up with Playmaker before he logs out.

It doesn't take him that long to find them either. From the looks of it he's investigating some kind of security gate or something. Takeru's not good with computers and the virtual world aspect of it all makes it worse, so much worse. Like how does all this work?

He ignores the pending existential crisis to join Playmaker in staring at the barrier between them and the other two people who escaped him. Link Vrains warning system causes him to panic a bit. Standing next to a hacker who's wanted by the people telling them to leave is not the right time to introduce yourself to someone.

“ _I'm logging out. You should leave too,_ ” He tells the other man before looking at his duel disk for the logout function. Flame quirks his eye at him but otherwise remains silent.

“[Who are you?]” Playmaker demands. The piercing glare he sends Takeru reminds him of the crawling sensations he felt early. Maybe he wasn't too far off then.

“ _I'm Soulburner_ ,”. He replies with the biggest smirk he can muster before Flame puts the log out button on the screen. “Until we meet again.”

When he comes back to the real world, there's a mop on his head and a couple of brooms in his lap. This is what he gets for hiding out in the janitors closet. He laughs to himself before jumping to his feet and walking back into the hallway. It doesn't matter, though, he's finally starting to move forward again!

“Teenagers,” mutters a janitor coming behind him to get into the room. Takeru resists the urge to turn around and correct them. No, he's in a good mood, so he'll let it go. Besides he needs to get home, so he and Flame can talk in peace. Or more like he can rave about how cool that was without someone overhearing.

“Hey, Flame, that was cool, wasn't it?” He asks staring off into space while they make their way back to that shabby hotel.

“Yes, I did a brilliant job didn't I?” The Ingis replies smugly and Takeru rolls his eyes at the dramatic tone.

“It's hard to believe you're an AI with that kind of arrogant attitude.”

“If you knew more about technology, it wouldn't be,” Flame huffs and he peaks down to see him with his arms sunk into the duel disk like they're supposed to be on hips. Pompous little guy isn't he?

“Maybe if you weren't such a brash teacher, I'd pick things up faster,” He suggests and Flame bends twist himself around with this skeptical expression.

  
“Says the person who dropped out of school and renounced modern technology. It would have been easier if you at least knew not to click the shady buttons on websites,” Flame replies.

“Hey where do you think you're going?” Someone shouts some obnoxious asshole down the road. He has a good idea of what the person shouting is planning, and he runs in the directions he hears the guy yelling.

“Takeru! What are you doing?!” Flame yells bobbing around wildly until he sinks back into the duel disk with a loud huff.

He doesn't reply; instead, he turns gazes around looking for whoever that jackass shouting is harassing. It's automatic, but he can't leave someone to deal with that kind of situation on their own. Takeru never could. He might be a punk but that reputation comes from beating up street thugs who were messing with people or who wanted to mess with him.

Soon enough he catches the goon in question holding someone smaller than him up against the side of the building. Their would be victim though it doesn't look like they're going down without a fight. Only even from as far as Takeru is he can see there's no way the guy is going to get out of that without some interference no matter how much he struggles.

Without thinking he rushes the assailant with a punch aimed towards the side of his face but Takeru's not sure where it hits but it's enough to get 'em to let the other man go. The goon stumbles a bit from the impact but recoils back up quickly and glares at him while the stranger slides down onto the ground.

“The fuck man?” the guy accuses starring him and then man on the ground before he gets this expression on his face that says the situation isn't worth it. Most idiots on the street were like that, once someone interfered with whatever they were doing they stopped and went off to find someone else more vulnerable.

“Argh, I'm out of here. You two probably don't even possess anything worth the effort.”

He watches the man walk away rubbing the side of his before turning to meet the piercing glare of the other stranger. That look is familiar...did he pass this guy earlier while he was on campus?

As if the guy can't get any colder, he slaps Takeru's hand away when he offers to help him up. “I am fine. You can leave now.”

“No I'm only trying to help you out,” he replies trying to grin as innocently as he can but the other man scuffs at him.

“Right,” the stranger drones as he makes his way back to his feet. He's leaning a little hard into the wall for him to be alright. “Like the guy who attempted to mug me didn't try the exact same line?”

“You don't look so well, maybe I could help you to the hospital?” He offers taking a couple of steps back and ruffling his hair with his hands. Takeru understands being pissed after that kind of encounter but it's not cool to be accused of wanting to do the same thing.

The stranger's frown deepens before he scans around the ground for something. His eyes ultimately land on a school bag that was those a few feet from them. Without another word he fumbles upright, snatches it off the ground and begins walking off.

Takeru watches him slowly go further and further away before he reacts without thinking for a second time. He jogs after the stranger who doesn't look in his direction before asking.

“What do you want?”

“Honestly I'm not sure. Something about you seems familiar and figured I can at least find out the name of the guy I helped out.” His statement earns him a short glare before the stranger sighs and replies to him.

“Fujiki.”

“Fujiki. Fujiki. Where have I heard that before?” He wonders out loud while he stares off at the beginning of the sunset. Fujiki...

'Fujiki, Yusaku. “Playmaker!”

Of course he blurts that last bit and Yusaku twists around with this vicious gleam in his eyes.

“How do you know my name?”

“I told him,” Flame answers popping out between them. Somehow his appearance causes Yusaku to freeze up in surprise for a second before he goes back to glaring at him.

“I am Soulburner,” He offers, gesturing towards himself with his thumb. “We met earlier, remember?”

“What do you want?” Yusaku asks, staring at Flame, but he answers instead.

“I want to help!”

Yusaku turns back around and starts walking away again. Something wiggling around in his bag stops Takeru from going after him a second time.

A copy of Flame or something similar to him only purple pops out of the bag and waves at them with this ridiculous glint in his eyes. He waves at them to keep following.

“Don't mind Yusaku. He's a little rough around the edges but I hear so are you!”

“Umm...You're an Ignis too,” he rambles tilting his head to get a better look at him. He and Flame definitely have a similar shape, but they are designed differently. Thinking about Ignis only made him think about the Incident. So Yusaku went through the same torture he did? He already knew that, but meeting him in person made it feel more real. There really are other people who underwent the same horrors out there!

“Affirmative. That is the Dark Ignis I told you about. He's kind of an idiot, but he is reliable,” Flame says crossing his arms in the smug way he usually does.

  
“Hey I'm not an idiot!” the other Ignis yells mimicking Flames smug stance but he looks more like he's pouting.

“Ai shut up,” Yusaku snaps, not bothering to turn around. Ai deflates like all the air was let out of him. 

“Yusaku you're so mean! But I know you love me anyway!”

“There is no love between us,” Yusaku replies dully and Ai stares at Flame. They share this peculiarly sad look before the other Ignis puffs himself up again.

“I don't believe that! But we can argue this later when we're alone. Right now we should invite them to the cafe. I'm sure hot dog man would love to meet them!”

Yusaku remains silent and Ai sighs, “ So as I was saying, why don't you guys meet us at Cafe Nagi tomorrow since this grump doesn't feel like talking right now?”

“Sound plan, I shall have Takeru there around lunch time,” Flame replies and Takeru glances down at him curiously.

“Do I get a say in all this?”

“Are you going to stop now?” he asks, returning the questionable look.

Takeru laughs before noticing Yusaku and Ai disappeared while he was distracted for a few seconds. No wonder he got away with his persona so long, he can pull off a hasty escape well. 

Wait, they didn't tell them where that cafe is located!

* * *

“Jin,” he said, staring over the unconscious form of the other man in the pseudo bed Lightning had made for him. For some reason it resembled a coffin in a way with its raised sides and soft formal lining.

The Ignis never did provide a straightforward reason as to why he needed Jin, but he wasn't going to question it. Jin was better off with them no matter how he looked at the situation. At least when Lightning's plan is finished, he won't have to live with the horrors he was put through anymore. Neither will he once they work out all the bugs remaining in Bowman's system.

For now though he's going to need to figure out what he's going to do about Ai, Flame and the fool calling himself Soulburner.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I unironically love that scene of bit and boot pointing at each other and saying you're fired before catching fire. It's so stupid but it's funny to think Lightning created those two
> 
> Yeah, I'm gonna keep this in Takeru's pov mostly except a few hints of what Yusaku's up too. I learned my lesson about constantly switching povs lol It can be such a pain in the bleep. 
> 
> Poor Takeru everyone's keeping secrets from you. Anyway what do you think?


	6. Fire & Ice

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> _Every word you're saying is a lie  
>  Run away my dear  
> But every sign will say your heart is dead  
> Bury all the memories  
> _

As it turns out possessing a know-it-all AI for a partner actually comes in handy for more than getting him into trouble. It would have been nice if Flame had said something before he spent about thirty minutes scouring the area for any sign of where Yusaku and Ai went, though! Takeru wanted to ask where the cafe is located.

“Stop sulking. It's not my fault that basic functions like GPS allude you,” Flame says while they make their way around the city looking for this cafe.

“Yeah, but why would someone running a cafe park it in the one area that isn't crowded with people?” He replies and starts walking towards the truck.

“Hi!” He calls walking up to the window. It's a little weird to envision the cafe he was searching for was mobile and could easily have driven away...

“Hey! Can I get you something?” The man on the other side asks.

“Umm, I'm actually looking for someone. Is Fujiki Yusaku around?” He replies and immediately regrets asking when he catches Yusaku's hard gaze from behind the man.

“Ah! Ai said someone was supposed to be coming by today. Though you don't look like you could scare off a big, scary, mugger,” the man laughs and continues.

“That doesn't answer my question. Can I get you a hotdog or something before we get into things?”

In the background Ai makes himself known by waving his arms around excitedly. Yusaku sighs and shifts him closer to the window before standing rigid by the other man.

“Sure I'll have a hot dog please!” He replies, glancing down at his duel disk for a second to see if Flame is going to say something.

“How do you want it?” Ai asks with that same weird his up to something expression that Flame gets and Takeru wonders how similar the two are.

“Cooked?” Is there another way to serve hotdogs?

“No I mean, like, do you want it with something on top like some garlic, or with a side of fries or maybe with Yusaku's number,” Ai says slipping that last part in like it's a real option. Then Yusaku proceeds to whack him with a pair of tongs that had been resting on the counter.

“Hey! I'm just trying to help!” Ai whines stroking his head.

“And I've advised you before to not suggest things like that,” Yusaku retorts dully and the other man signs at them.

“Well welcome to our merry band of weirdos. Since you've already met Yusaku and Ai. I'll introduce myself, call me Kusanagi.”

“It's nice to meet you Kusanagi,” Flame replies, emerging between them and gesturing to him. “His name is Takeru Homura, and I am Flame. It's spelt-”

“I can introduce myself!” He huffs and the Ignis twists with his nonexistent eyebrows up.

“But I didn't get to my name.”

“Flame, we have more urgent things to get into don't we?” Takeru asks. Ai snickers to himself behind them.

Like that he and Flame became part of the little group without much complaint. As it turns out the vendor is a pretty laid back guy, despite his story. The guy can't seem to catch a break as far as his brother is concerned. It's terrifying to think something could appear and do that to someone.

Takeru doesn't have the time to get caught up in being afraid of things anymore. Instead, he has to deal with his heroes, mainly Go Onizuka. Though he should try to get to know Yusaku better, it's a little weird sometimes watching videos of Playmaker and knowing he's down the road likely glaring into some poor schmuck's soul.

However, it's Go he ends up dueling first. The amount of whining the other man does is infuriating. Why can't the idiot understand that those kids he's talking about don't care about whether he's the best or not? Guess this is why they say don't meet your heroes, they'll end up disappointing you. Sheesh how do you go from saving the world with someone to trying to capture them?

Go might be a lost cause as far as Takeru's concerned but he can try again with the mortified Yusaku. He turns to Playmaker once the other man logs out and notes this out of place wide-eyed look on his face and lets out a loud, “Eep! Umm, how about we log out now?

Playmaker does just that, he logs out without saying anything. He sighs and wonders what Blue Angel might be like if he runs into her too. She appears nice, but who knows at this point!

Takeru wakes up to the sounds of Ai's high pitched voice lecturing Yusaku. “I keep telling you. You need to take better care of yourself!

“I'm fine,” Yusaku insists, getting up.

“Fine until you end up a pile of bones in an-” Ai stops mid complaint when they notice him and Flame observing them.

“Oops forgot we had company!”

Yusaku scuff and walks out of the cramped room. Takeru scurries to follow after him but ends up running into him.

“What's the rush?” Kusanagi asks with a laugh.

“Nothing! I guess I'm still a little excited,” He replies, running his hand through his hair until Flame reminds him, he's still attached to that arm. Watching a set of tiny arms flail around from the edge of his vision is funny but he decides it better to take the disk off for now.

“You're an avid fan of Go, Blue Angel and Yusaku here aren't you?” Kusanagi asks and there's something scheming in his expression but he decides to nod his head in agreement anyway.

“Why don't you help Yusaku home then, so you two can get to know each other better?"

Yusaku scowls but stays quiet while they wait for him to reply.

“If he's okay with that sure I wouldn't mind..,” Takeru answers and it goes quiet between the five of them until the Kusanagi starts laughing.

“You're both too awkward for your own good,” Kusanagi sighs and turns back to his computer. “I'm going to see if I can uncover anything. You two should go rest for the night.”

Yusaku walks out of the truck after that. The man sighs again, “If you can figure out what's going on with him, I'll give you a lifetime supply of hotdogs.”

“What do you mean?” Takeru asks, taking a seat next to him. He can catch up with Yusaku in a minute.

Kusanagi sinks back into his and looks over at him exhausted, “We've been working together for awhile and it seemed like he started opening up as we got closer and closer to finishing the Hanoi but it's like we're back at square one. I don't know what happened, but I'm still surprised he hasn't snapped at you yet.”

“He might have already when I met him...but I kind of deserved it for blurring out his online handle in public,” Takeru replies sheepishly.

The other man chuckles, “sounds about right, but I mean it. If you can figure out what's going on with our resident ice king, I'll give you all the hotdogs you want.”

“I'll see what I can do,” he laughs and gets up. Though he's got his work cut out for him with slippery Yusaku is. The guy always manages to disappear in the blink of an eye and given a few minutes head start he could already be gone. Good thing Ai's a babbler mouth that likes to give Flame directions for where they are.

Takeru finally spots Yusaku not too far from where he ran into him the first time. He runs after him trying to catch up.

“Hey! Yusaku! Wait up!”

Of course he doesn't stop for him, but over his shoulder Ai waves at him.

“Hey Takeru! I was starting to think Flame was having a hard time figuring out my directions, so you got lost.”

“Well maybe if you were clearer in your instructions, we would have found you sooner!” Flame argues glaring at his fellow Ignis. He Ignores the glaring contest between the two AI to try to keep pace with Yusaku instead.

“Sorry,” Takeru starts and glances over at Yusaku for a second before staring off.“I'm not sure what happened. At first I was excited to meet Go and then I got pissed at him and that must have been weird to listen to. Especially since you don't really know me.”

He takes a breath and continues,“It's okay if that was too much, but I guess that's why they say don't meet your heroes.”

“What am I like to you then?” Yusaku asks with that intense stare of his and much as he hates to admit it, he squirms a bit under it. Can the guy turn it down a notch for once?

“Well, see..,” Ai cuts him off. “ _Ai _think you're a big meanie!”__

____

__

“I did not ask you,” Yusaku hisses back. Maybe Kusanagi's right about something being wrong here. The few videos he's caught of him and Ai interacting they've at least been civil with each other. It's saddening watching Ai deflate the way he does.

Being impulsive that thought slips out of his mouth before he realizes it,“You don't have to be so hard on Ai. It's not like he's wrong, you come off nastier then the old ladies who used to yell at me for existing.”

Yusaku and Ai glance over at him with the raised eyebrow. If it were any other time Takeru would have laughed at the similarities between them but right now isn't the best time for that. Even Flame looks at him tilted over curious about what he said.

Takeru grins nervously and starts rambling off, “You know how archaic some elderly people are. If aren't like them then you're a terrible person...The group of old crones used to yell at me until my grandparents told them off. I was like ten at the time so it wasn't even like I had an unsavoury reputation yet.”

“Yet,” Flame mutters.

“Yet you choose to pretend you are the person they wanted you to be. They might be old fashioned but at least they are straightforward about who they are,” Yusaku replies, stopping outside a dilapidated old building.

“You told Go you were using dueling to find who you are, but you're deluding yourself and trying to be someone you're not. You really want to fit into some nonexistent definition of normal?”

“Yusaku?” Ai asks, confused.

“Umm,” He stutters a few times. Takeru didn't think of it like that. All of that came flooding out when he was dueling Go without him thinking too much about it.

“I don't care one way or another but it'd be easier if you figure this out before you go too far down that road,” Yusaku warns and shakes his head.

“Come on, why don't you come in for a bit.”

“Aww! There's the Yusaku I know! All hard on the outside and soft on the inside!” Ai coos but Yusaku rolls his eyes.

“It's not like that.”

“Sure,” Takeru replies. This isn't how he expected today to go, but it's not like he's got anything better to do. He did say he would see if he could figure out what's going on with Yusaku.

Yusaku steers them into his apartment as silently as he does everything else and it's surreal. Like him latching the door is somehow creepy with how run down the the place is. The creaking doesn't help, but he sits on at the computer desk and waits for Yusaku to say something.

He does with his strangest statement yet, “After meeting Spectre and Jin I expected the other people who were involved in the Incident to be a little more- By comparison you seem functional.”

“Umm Thanks?” Takeru replies at a loss. The brief amount of time they've known each other he's always been blunt but being called functional is a first. Something like a light flips off in his after a couple of minutes.

“You're a hypocrite! You perform the same way I do! I just don't know what you're trying to cover up!” He accuses and slams his mouth shut. He shouldn't have said that.

To his surprise Yusaku's mouth twitches up and he laughs.

“Everyone is hiding something.”

Ominous as that sounds Takeru doesn't ask him what he's implying. Instead, he tries something that might be a bit more diplomatic! Or at least he hopes it will be.

“Hey, how about I teach you a few things about self-defense? Seems like you could use some pointers.”

Yusaku goes back to being blank, “That's not necessary. You caught me the one time that idiot decided to mess with me.”

“Yeah, but -” Takeru's stomach interrupts the conversation causing the two AI in the room to laugh at him.

“How about we go buy something to eat?” Yusaku offers. “We could order something or there's a small grocer down the road.“

“Small grocer! I like to cook, and you could probably use something that isn't a hotdog,” he replies and off to the side Ai doubles over laughing.

“He could use something that isn't a hotdog or ramen! I swear I've never seen him eat anything else!”

“I will lock you in the drawer,” Yusaku threatens and then he gets up.“Well come on.”

Somehow the rest of the night goes as well as can be expected. Yusaku can't cook to save his life, but it's enduring watching him try to figure out how to chop vegetables. Though he did need to stop him from chopping off a couple of fingers a few times. After dinner Yusaku asks him to stay for the night since it's late and the area they live in.

After they argue about who gets the bed Takeru drifts off listening to Ai and Flame bicker about absurd methods of transportation. He is not attaching a whole vehicle to his duel disk because Flame's jealous Ai made Yusaku’s into a drone.

“You didn't inform him?” Yusaku asks quietly. It's hard to mistake his voice when the other person talking to him has an electronic tone.

'You haven't told him either. Are you going to?” Flame replies and he pretends to be asleep. This is getting intriguing.

“No It's not something he needs to know,” Yusaku answers. Then it's silent again. So much for that, maybe he can ask Flame about it in the morning if he remembers.

A voice he doesn't recognize speaks up not that long after.

“You seem to have taken an interest in him. Hopefully, this is a passing interest we cannot have him getting in the way.”

“I know. I wanted to talk to Flame,that's all,”Yusaku replies. Okay, Takeru really needs to talk to Flame when they get back to their apartment tomorrow.

“Give it up now. He is not the type to agree with us,” the mystery voice counters and he can hear Yusaku sigh before it goes quiet for the rest of the night. Or he finally managed to fall asleep either way he didn't pick up on anything after that. That morning he vaguely remembers what happened so he doesn't bring it up.

Then he ends up face to face with the last of his heroes? It isn't until one of Blue Girl's Trickstars' whacks him on the head that he figures out the person he's dueling is Blue Angel. Flame briefed him about Aoi but how was he supposed to know they were the same person! Lots of people have Blue in their names, and there's plenty of copies of her too!

To make his life somehow weird, if that even possible at this point, his reward for beating her is being late to party. He gets a pity wave from the wind Ignis as he floats away.

“Playmaker?” Takeru asks, walking up to meet him and Ai.  
“Ah, looks like Windy hasn't changed. He still can't stand to be around for longer than a few seconds,” Ai sighs and shrugs.

“Did he mention anything valuable?” Flames asks.

They logged out having not found anything again. The other Ignis seem to enjoy being elusive. On the bright side he's been cooking with Yusaku more! They end up jammed in his small kitchen most nights after Kusanagi sends them home.

One night the man and Yusaku find something, and he's left out of the loop for his lack of computer skills. It's frustrating to be reminded how useless he is when it comes to this stuff but whatever. One of them will contact him if anything urgent happens.

Oh, well at least now he can talk to Flame about what he overheard the other night. It's been a thought in the back of his head since then that he and Yusaku somehow knew each other already. Honestly, he's a bit jealous since he hasn't known Flame that long and neither seem to want to tell him what's going on.

Therefore, he sets Flame on the bed and carefully hops on it too.

“I have a question,” He starts giving the old duel disk a poke. It's ironic how it's a matching red.

“If it's about computers, it's about time,” Flame replies and Takeru gives him a more aggressive poke.

“Hey! I'm not going to be able to learn this stuff fast enough to be helpful. But that's not what I want to know.”

“Oh? What is it?” Flame asks, staring at him curiously.

“If you would give me a second, I would answer you...I overheard you and Yusaku a while ago talking. There's something you two aren't telling me,” Takeru replies and the AI slums down a bit and sighs.

“I told him we should have conducted this conversation already. As your partner there is something I should tell you about Yusaku,” He starts to explain. Takeru's used to Flame calling Yusaku, Playmaker. It concerns him to hear his real name like that.

“I thought it would have been a better idea for him to explain this, but he's changed a lot since back then.”

“If your eyebrow goes any higher it's going to shoot off your face!”

“Uhuh, you're not getting off topic! What's going on? I want to know!” Him jumping up like that causing Flame to tip over. He probably shouldn't have laughed but it's funny seeing Flame try to flip himself back over. Over-inflated ego but little arms so he has trouble.

“If you're done messing around, this is serious!” Flame whines and he laughs hysterically.

“Sorry, sorry, It's been awhile since we've had a minute to relax like this,” he says flipping the pouting AI back over.

“I suppose you're right. It has been awhile since you've flung me across the room,” Flame gives him the stink. If the AI had a month, he would never stop scowling at him.

“I'm going to Ignore that for now. Tell me what I'm missing!” Takeru shouts and mimics his unpleasant expression.

“Fine! I knew Yusaku a long time ago. That idiot brought him into the Cyberse world and let him live with us for years,” He admits slums down. “He stayed with us for years until the Knights of Hanoi acted our world a few years ago...He's different now, though.”

“What?!” Takeru screams. He didn't mean to and quickly slaps his hand over his mouth and looks around wondering if his neighbors overheard him. Who knows how thin the walls here are?

“How is that even possible?”

“Ai took him in during that..,” Takeru finishes his sentence for him. “During the Lost Incident.”

“I advised him at first that Yusaku should have gone back,” Flame sighs. Strange as it sounds it makes him think about that night again. If Yusaku grew up in Cyberse then he knows the other Ignis. Takeru memory might be foggy but he remembers it didn't sound like Ai or Flame so maybe it was one of the other Ignis?

“You're thinking too hard again, I can see the steam pouring out of your head. What is it?” Flame asks, waving around trying to get his attention. He trusts the AI but it would be weird to accuse Yusaku of something if he's mistaken about this.

“Nothing I'm thinking of how much sense that makes. Strange as it is, that does explain Yusaku's lack of ability to interact with normal people,” Takeru jokes and sits up again. Flame's eyes narrow for a second but he relents after a few seconds.

“No, I think that comes from Ai. That idiot is a horrible role model!”

He laughs and settles them both in for the night. For someone who likes to play it cool Flame does like to talk his ear off until Takeru falls asleep. That's what happens, the AI and him go back and forth asking questions and talking about everything that's happened since they came to this city. One day he would love to see the Cyberse world too. For all they know he could help them reconstruct it once everything is over.

* * *

“Playmaker!” 

Sounds like Lightning finished reprogramming Bowman again. Screams of digital agony aside why didn't Windy build a world that was more believable? Everyone noticed how weird the whole setup had been instantly. His erratic behavior is going to his demise if he keeps it up. 

One would think a super-AI would be able to put together a better fake castle landscape than that poor excuse of children's play setting he made. It wouldn't have surprised him if he checked around the other side of the wall behind him to find it supported by cardboard. The wind Ignis isn't that important right now. Not while he waits for the maniac Ignis outside his gaudy castle. 

Why did Lightning need him to come anyway? Yusaku's been waiting out here for almost an hour. It surprises him that someone hasn't gotten suspicious of him by yet with how the long periods of time he goes missing. The Ignis downed played his concern when he brought it up not that long ago. 

“He's coming along nicely,” Lightning comments, coming to meet him outside the castle. 

“Why did you ask me to come here? It can't be to test out Bowman 3.0 already,” Yusaku remarks and Lightning brushes him off like usual. 

“I have something for you. Let me see that duel disk of yours,” He orders. There never was room for argument with him so Yusaku offers him his arm. Something about letting him do it always feels wrong. Last time Lightning popped up to tell him about his plans after Ai took off. 

Despite the invasiveness of the situation, it's over in a split second. Yusaku jerks his arm back to check the data Lightning gave him and it's a deck, his deck! Lightning gave him copies of his Armatos Legio cards. 

“It would be a reasonable idea to figure out how to use them in case it is necessary in the future,” Lightning explains crossing his arms. 

Yusaku frowns, hopefully in the end his instincts are wrong and he won't need to use the cards at all. He can't lose _his _cards too. If something happened with Firewall or Honeybot or any of them...__

____

____

“Now tell me more about this Soulburner? You seem to be spending a lot of time with him.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Deer lord I finally got point B done! lol. I might need to revisit my summary though, he's not really Lightning's soldier is he?
> 
> Anyway, I hope this works well, I'm kind ify myself on most of it to be honest but as I said have to get to point C!


	7. Let Us Burn

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> _I'm not fighting myself, will not follow  
>  'Cause my choices are mine, it's my fate  
> And I'll never bow down from the sorrow  
> I'll face all that is coming my way ___

If he ever gets his hands on that pathetic excuse for a human being he'll kill him! What the hell is Sol Technologies thinking hiring someone like that?! Eh! This is what he gets for going up against a major corporation with a grudge. Takeru hadn't thought about what he signed up for when he agreed to help Flame.  Maybe  he would have seen the corrupt and self-regious bounty hunters coming if he had.

Takeru sighs and slumps against the back of the cafe. Some people can be  utterly  vile. Someone who searches for someone else's weaknesses to exploit them is the worst.

The backdoor of the truck clicks and out walks Yusaku in usually hard to read fashion. Awful as the experience with Blood Shepherd was. He would do it again. Takeru could only imagine what someone doing that Yusaku would do to him. They've finally started to enjoy some kind of understanding. Something like that would likely set them both at square one again.

“Are you alright?” Yusaku asks. He shuts the door  quietly  and stares at him with a tilted expression.

“Yeah. I needed a minute after that,” Takeru replies before breaking into bitter laughter.  Maybe  he isn't as alright as he's trying to make everyone believe but the whole situation is absurd. His grandparents would have a fit if he tried explaining what's been happening.

Yusaku presses his lips together for a second before he snatches Takeru's arm, prying him away from the truck .

In shock Takeru lets himself  be dragged  towards the sea. Of course with his luck as of late, he stumbles over his feet falling flat on his face. As fast he snatched him, Yusaku kneels down and offers to assist him.

“I suppose I will ask again. Are you alright?”

Feeling embarrassed, Takeru accepts the offer but tries to laugh it off, “Tripping over my feet! I swear my luck today is the worst!”

Once he's back on his feet his eyes trail back over to the truck. “Anyway what's up? It's not like you to be so umm...forward?”

Yusaku stares at him and Takeru thinks he could have put that better but how was he supposed to phrase it with him acting kinda shady  ? Yusaku's mouth twists around like he's hesitant about how he wants to reply to that. Finally, it settles on something he can't read.  That's nothing new, months of working together and Takeru still can't tell if he's annoyed or wants a sandwich . It surprises him the number of times it turns out to be the sandwich.

“You don't like people either do you? Even before your latest match you would ramble off about people being awful,” he replies.

This shouldn't surprise Takeru as much as it does. Yusaku's never been secretive about his dislike for  just  about everyone around him. Hell it's not even the first time he's been this blatant about it.

“I mean that last duel with Blood Shepherd doesn't help but most people aren't so bad. Plus that would make me a hypocrite wouldn't it?” He hasn't been the most model citizen the last decade or so.  Looking back Takeru's never done anything as bad as most of the scummy individuals they've come in contact with since he came here but still .

“Besides my grandparents and my best friend Kiku are great people,” he catches the tiniest hint of dispoint from Yusaku and rephrases that . “Of course you and Kusanagi have been great.”

“I've been great? You tell me at least once a day to be nicer to people,” Yusaku snorts, skeptical of his own actions.

“You know that's not what I mean. You're not a bad person Yusaku.  Too harsh sometimes sure but I wouldn't compare you with someone like Blood Shepherd or even Go,” Takeru says slinging an arm around him with a goofy grin . Kusanagi's right, it is fun to tease Yusaku a little bit. Especially if it's about how clueless he can be sometimes.

“You would be an idiot to compare me with someone like Go but it's good to know I've got the confidence of a small-town punk,” he remarks, giving a short chortle .

“Thank you though, I appreciate not having to deal with that asshole again but you should not have had to go through that kind of underhanded tactic .”

“How do you know what happened?”  Takeru's mouth runs faster than the rest of him sometimes but they  were enclosed  in that space weren't they ? It's not like they had time to search up any footage yet either.

“I overheard you screaming. Something terrible must have happened for you to do that,” He replies frowning.

“Oh,” Takeru takes his arm back and runs it through his hair. “Well, you see about that...I was playing it up for him. It wasn't that bad  really !”

Yusaku keeps staring through him, so Takeru continues to babble, feeling ashamed knowing he worried them too . “Anyway, why don't we go back to the truck? It's not like Kusanagi doesn't know you're not a people person.

With no other reply then a continued blank stare he decides to start walking back towards the cafe. It looks like things are starting to pick up and they should hurry back. Takeru makes it a few steps before something, argh someone stops him.

“Not everyone,” Yusaku snatches his hand and roots them both in place.  For a brief moment he could have sworn that blank expression became somewhat pleading . “If you had the chance to start over again would you take it?”

To Takeru's surprise his mouth and mind come to the same answer at the same time, “No, I loathe what happened to us but I'm glad to have met everyone and experienced some of the other things I have . Though I could live without bounty hunters!”

“That's not...never mind,” Yusaku replies, shaking his head.  He releases Takeru and starts walking away like he never proposed such an unusual question  .  He stops and turns back to Takeru for a second like he wants to express something but turns his heels again and walks away .

That rare moment begins to feel like a daydream after a while. Yusaku goes right back to being mean and  prickly  but there's something off about him.  It's the way he phrases things to be less cutting or the way he asks him to hang out when they're not doing illegal activities .

Maybe  he's warming up to Takeru after all! It would be nice if that was the only major drama in his life but it's not, not even close considering the AI in his life.

“I told you he was an idiot,” Flame sighs reading the mess of letters and numbers on the screen.

“Idiot is a forbidden word,” Roboppi chirps  automatically  and the Ignis waves off the little bot .

“Talk about targeted advertisement.” Takeru replies in awe of how ridiculous the situation is. A super intelligent artificial intelligence fell for a puzzle with his face as the prize. What is his life? He wouldn't fall for something as ridiculous like that!

The story goes that Ai and Roboppi were messing around online when they came across this website with an Ai-charm as the prize for a crossword puzzle  . The other Ignis has not  been seen  since so Yusaku brought the little bot with him to figure out what happened.  Honestly  though it's nice to have someone there who's almost as clueless as he is even if they're a cleaning bot.

Takeru's seen Roboppi a few times since he started hanging out with Yusaku at his apartment. Usually he's buzzing around cleaning or charging when they're around.

“That's an Ignis algorithm,” Flame continues but it still resembles alphabet soup to him so he waits for one of them to suggest their next step. He really is kind of useless as anything more than an extra set of muscles and even then it's not necessary.

While Takeru's bemoaning his lack of computer skills Kusanagi pulls up a doorway out of the address Flame gave them . Looks like he might be of some help after all!

“If that is from another Ignis we should go check it out!” Takeru states  firmly  and Yusaku scowls at him.

“ _Wait, [I will] go alon_ e,” He replies.

He's senseless if he thinks Takeru is going to let him go alone like that, “ _Let's go together._ ”

“ _Wait, this could be a trap. If we both get caught, it's ove_ r,” Yusaku explains.

“ _You're suspicious of Windy?He's [our] ally_ ,” Flame says.

“ Really ? I didn't think the two of you were that close considering how he's been playing us.” Yusaku says, raising his eyebrow at the fire Ignis. “That's not the point If we both get trapped then what?”

“Fine, but I'm sending Takeru in if you don't come back soon,” Kusanagi concedes balling his fist together. "I wish I could do more on the offensive front.”

“It's better this way,” Yusaku replies before slipping off into the VR room, despite his protests.

Yeah, he's not waiting around to  be told  when he can go in. As soon as he hears the click for the door Yusaku went in, he makes a run for his room.  Kusanagi  audioably  groans from the other side of the door but doesn't do anything to stop him from following .

Rushing head might not have been his best idea. He and Flame land in an uncanny field outside of what looks like a city. No sign of Ai or Playmaker in sight.

“Soulburner are you sure this is a good idea?  We don't know where either Ai or Playmaker ended up,” Flame says analyzing the landscape around them .

“Where are we?” Takeru brushes off the Ignis' concern. It shouldn't be so hard to find them if they work together.

Flame places his hands on his hip and shakes his head, “From the looks of it someone  hastily  tried to recreate Cyberse World and this is the result .”

“It's not the first time Windy's tried to trick us with shoddy workmanship,” Takeru replies, taking off towards the city . Might as well start somewhere!

“Still a better job than what you can do,” Flame remarks and he rolls his eyes.

“You're saying you'll do a better job once this mess is over?” Takeru asks.

They continue journeying through a very literal uncanny valley talking about how they would design the world instead . The Ignis has some outlandish ideas about architecture, but what does he know? Flame helped build the original and if this copy is anything to go by physics shouldn't be an issue neither.

“Caw!”

Okay  maybe  there's another program around and he's not crazy. At least not this time,  hopefully .

“Caw!”

This time Takeru glances around hoping there's something there until like last time when and  was left  feeling crazier . Finally, he looks up and spots an annoyed looking bird hovering over him. It's not any bird it's on of their Salamangreats and it doesn't look very happy with them.

“Parro? What are you doing here?” Flame asks it and Parro flaps its wings in a huff and starts flying off in a divergent direction then they're going.

“She wants us to follow her.

“You speak bird now?” Takerus asks wondering if he overlooked something. Flame sighs in disappointment.

Takeru chases after the monster anyway, if she knows where they're supposed to be going then lead the way!

He regrets following the aggatied bird about half way up an  absurdly  winding staircase . The castle at the top was definitely designed by an Ignis. Anyone else wouldn't have put in so many stairs!

Takeru doesn't know what to expect once the castle door fling open but it definitely isn't this.  He walks a good distance into a stretched out hallway, and it feels like he stepped into an alternate universe  . He stops right next to the one person he's been itching to see locked up since coming to Den City.  Something about Revolver  being trapped  the way he is now doesn't fit the orange jumpsuit image he had in mind .

Seeing Yusa-Playmaker on the other side of the room from Ai only makes the situation weirder. Why the hell would Ai be next to the leader of the Knights of Hanoi and not his partner? Why is Playmaker standing there like he belongs next to the other Ignis?

“What the hell is going on here?!” He demands staring right at Playmaker, but it's the yellow Ignis that moves. Yusaku stands there like a statue while the Ignis floats over his shoulder, smirking.

“Soulburner is it? Playmaker here has told me so much about you.”

“Yeah! Well, I have no idea who you are!Or what's going on here?!” He replies and off to the side Revolver turns to him and utters a bitter laugh.

“You've been working with Playmaker this whole time and are still an idiot. That's the Light Ignis! Your companion over there decided that program is more important than humanity!”  He spits the word companion with venom before  fruitlessly  slamming his fist against the data bubble he's trapped .

“Link Vrains hero is nothing more than an AI pawn!”

“That's enough from you,” The light Ignis says snapping his fingers and whatever tirade Revolver has  is silenced . Despite him continuing to rant inside the bubble.

“Now then Soulburner-” Playmaker finally moves and steps in front of the Ignis. “No, I will deal with him.”

“Playmaker!” Ai calls from his spot on the floor. Despite being small his voice cares in a way that gets  all of  their attention. “You're  really  siding with the bogeyman?What happened to him being the monster under the bed?!”

“Ooh friend vs friend. This should be entertaining!” The green Ignis interrupts swaying around on nonexistent wind. “Here I was starting to think Playmaker was losing his edge. But no turns out he's still a bastard."

Yusaku side eyes the other Ignis before staring  directly  through Takeru. “Duel me. If you refuse you'll end up like that fool next to you."

“What?! I'd enjoy the chance to duel you but tell me what's going on first!” Takeru shouts back frustrated about this situation. Sure he wouldn't mind dueling Yusaku when it's a fun game they're playing for themselves. Something about this situation says they're in for more than a fun game.

“He's right Playmaker, We're on the same side whatever's going on we should discuss first,” Flame says popping in the conversation, finally !

“Oi! Flame their plan isn't something we can talk them about like this. You know how stubborn  all of  them are especially Lightning...I knew I should have put up parental controls!” Ai complains, and the other Ignis sighs at the response.

“Fine I'll duel you and when I win you're gonna to tell me what the fuck is going here!” Takeru replies tired of the pointless back and forth going on between the Ignis. Right now this is between the two humans in the room. Okay three but he doesn't want to think about Revolver.

He takes a deep breath and prepares to duel. Then Parro caws comes out of nowhere again followed by a few other weird noises around him. Instead of checking to see what is making those noises

he freezes.  Playmaker's expression shifts from it's usual stoic blank one to a bizarre mix of emotions Takeru's never seen like horror and heartbreak  . Playmaker steps back like he's  been wounded  before casting his eyes to the ground.

It's a monstrous groan that snaps Takeru out of whatever trance seeing his friend crumble like that put him in  .  If he had turned around slower the oversized Knight behind him  probably  wouldn't have scared him as much as it did . Unfortunately, for him though he screams at the sight of the army of monsters behind him.

“It seems that Playmaker's Cyberse cards refuse to fight you,” Flame remarks before twisting around to face their opionate . “That means you can't duel.”

“See Playmaker, even your knight in shining armor doesn't agree with this! Please reconsider this,” Ai pleads banging on his bubble.

“Enough! Looks like that gift of mine will have some use after all,” Lightning says, reaching for Yusaku's duel disk. Yusaku pulls out his physical cards and hands them over like nothing. That previous heartbreak froze over like it never was.  Then Lighting tosses his cards like they're nothing while he stands there watching them scatter like ashes .

The light Ignis settles onto Playmaker's shoulder with his arms crossed and the smuggest expression . Yusaku does something with his duel disk, and a new set of cards appear in the slot before he prepares to duel.

“Well this  really  is getting interesting,” Windy remarks before waving them all goodbye. “But I have better things to do. Tootles!”

“Playmaker!” Takeru shouts ignoring the other Ignis. His priority at the moment is persuading his friend to snap out of whatever is going on with him. He growls out his frustration making Flame turn back to him concerned.

Takeru's so tired of not knowing what's going on. If he needs to beat the answers out of Yusaku in a duel then he will!

“Psh, Soulburner check you extra deck,” Flame whispers before ducking back into the screen so he can look . That's not one of their cards...let's see if it comes in handy.

“I activate the field spell Armatos Colosseum,” Playmaker doesn't wait for them to figure out what's going on . Instead, he slams down a bunch of cards Takeru's never seen him use in quick succession.

Unfortunately, Takeru can't help thinking how much cooler this would be if Legatus Legionis was Decode Talker  . He'd like to duel his friend, not whoever the hell is standing in front of them.  Regardless he goes through with his turn, Heatleo can get around Legatus  easily  enough .

Or that would be the case but this Playmaker so of course he's got something up that jumpsuit of his. Still it gives Takeru an opening to ask about what's going on.

“Hey Ai are we dueling for your honor or something because I'd like to know how to proceed if so?” He asks, and all the Ignis in the room stare at him in their own quirky way. The one he asked snorts.

“I wish!That would be so much better! But alas it's less about my honor and more about me joining them in their quest to rule over humanity.”

“What!?” He and flame shout surprised. He could have mentioned that minor detail to them before they started dueling!

“Flame that invitation  is extended  to you as well.  It is about time we joined together and made our move,” Lightning answers clenching his tiny fists in some gesture of triumph or something . It's hard to find the Ignis intimidating when Takeru can fit them in the palm of his hand.

“I have no desire to subjugate humanity like that,” the fire Ignis replies immediately. “Soulburner is hard enough to manage.”

“You're telling me, I'm currently in timeout because of Playmaker...Hey-”

“Legatus Legionis attacks Heatleo,” the attack shuts everyone up for a moment.

_“If you had the chance to start over again would you take it?”_

Yusaku asked him that a while ago, and he brushed it off as a weird quirk but  maybe  he wanted to ask Takeru about all this instead ?

He also tried to keep Takeru from walking in on this conversation too. Trying to understand what's going on is like grasping at straws! It would be helpful if Yusaku would say something about anything that is this damn duel.

Good thing Flame pointed out the perfect card he could use to get him talking. “Link Summon, Link 3 Powercode Talker!”

“Let's see if you can use it right,” Playmaker says frowning at his former monster.  The army of monsters behind Takeru faded away before the match started but something tells him they still want to help . That or Flame put Powercode in his deck to encourage him, either way.

“Oh come on, you know I'm Playmaker's biggest fan! I've seen this baby in action plenty of times!”

“Soulburner is now  really  the right time to start fan boying?” Flame asks, raising an eye at him.

“Hell yeah! I don't know anything about AI vs. humans, but I'm two for three as far as my heroes go.  Dueling against Playmaker's real deck would have been better but I could say the same for Go too,” Takeru replies . Yusaku's eyes narrow at him. Good he's got his attention and gotten rid of that ugly Legatus Legionis.

“If you  are finished ,” Playmaker spits, losing patience with them.

Again he doesn't even wait for Takeru to respond, he goes right through a string of monsters before stopping .

“Link Summon, Link 4 Armatos Legio Magnus Dux. Since it's linked to Armatos Legio Pilus Prior, Powercode Talker goes back to the extra deck. Next I play a link spell. The three arrows that judge everything! I activate Judgement Arrows!” Playmaker shouts and the bane of their existence for the last few months crashes onto the field.

“You know that card  was used  to destroy our world why, ” Flame trails off while Ai picks up on the sentiment. “Those weirdos that took Kusanagi's brother have been using that against you too!”

_“If you had the chance to start over again would you take it?”_

“So what you decided it was better to  just  destroy the world and start over? What happens to Ai, Kusanagi, Flame and me?” Takeru asks running through what he could do for his turn.

“They did threaten to rewrite me because I happen to like people,” Ai points outs. Again something he could have said earlier!

“The older Kusanagi sibling already made his intentions clear as did Ai. As for the two of you, it seems you will have the same fate,” Lightning says waving him off.

“I wasn't asking you,” Takeru snaps.“Playmaker are you going to let someone else speak for you?”

“It is not like he's lying.  Kusanagi's made his priorities clear and,” for a brief second sadness washes over Playmaker but it's gone by the time he continues . “And Ai always has his own plans in mind. What I want is to rebuild Cyberse World and I can't do that if it keeps getting destroyed or hidden away.”

“Playmaker..,” Ai whispers  barely  loud enough for Takeru to pick up on. “I'm sorry.”

“You want to hide away someplace safe from the rest of the world?” Takeru starts, clenching his fist. “I did that for years because I hated everyone but I had my childhood friend and grandparents to support me. That's where we're different, isn't it?"

He's not like that anymore Yusaku helped him move on. Suppose it's time he repays that favor.

"I'm guess you spent the last few years listening to Lightning rave about how awful humans are and haven't  really  experienced what it's like to be around people who aren't assholes  ?  I know Kusanagi and me aren't the best examples of good people but that hasn't stopped you from working with us this whole time ."

Playmaker sends him an impassive glare so Takeru puffs himself up and continues on with his turn.

“I summon Salamagreat Emerald Eagle! Say goodbye to Armatos Legio Magnus Dux and Judgement Arrows! Once Eagle's attack goes through, we're leaving and you're coming with us!”

“Hate to disappoint you, but that's not going through,” before Playmaker can pull out a counter the castle quakes  violently  causing the ceiling to start falling in around them . Then there's a monstrous growl followed by more violent shaking. Lightning jerks his head over to the side and groans about Windy.

Before Flame can log them out Takeru sprints towards Yusaku hoping to catch him before the castle falls or he gets whisked away . His luck is the worst! Takeru reaches him in time for the floor to crack open between them. Right as he is about to grab Yusaku and haul them both out they're dropped into the data abyss beneath them.

Last thing he sees before Flame logs him out is the Playmaker reaching out for him in return.

Immediately when he comes into the real world he stumbles out to catch to see if Yusaku logged out too. Kusanagi has the same idea and helps him force the door open.

All they find is Ai sobbing over and shaking an unconscious Yusaku.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> ..... I fudged the duel as best I could with a few boss monsters lol I now have a new reason to hate Lightning and it's his ridiculously named cards. 
> 
> Anyway my brains kind of frazzled...also sorry Revy.
> 
> bonne journée!


End file.
